Alien
by Benevolence Black
Summary: When Aoyama breaks up with Ichigo 2 years after she stopped being a Mew and Kish left for his own planet, he yells, "Sometimes I wish you would just disappear!" With that, Ichigo is sent to Kisshu's planet. Oops. Without any way to contact her world, and Kish as her only means of friendship and safety, what will happen to the former Mew? Rated T 'cause it'll only get better.
1. Chapter 1: Oops

"Hmm~! Hmmmnnnm~!" Ichigo singsonged her way to the park near the river. She was going on a date with Aoyama! She giggled at the lack of an honorific with her boyfriend. He had finally talked her into calling him without one, though it took almost two years to get her to do so. Again, she giggled and squealed at the prospect of going on a date with Aoyama. After all, things hadn't been going well with him lately. She didn't know why, but her boyfriend seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with her antics. Ichigo had once thought, _Is Aoyama-kun getting tired of me now?_ But that thought was extinguished when he suddenly asked her out on a date. Thinking back on it, it wasn't supposed to seem sudden, right?

_"Ichigo! Ichigo! Wait up!" The girl turned and saw her boyfriend running up to her. __She obeyed, curious __o__f__what he wanted. After all, they hadn't spoken for __nearly__three__ days. Still, she was relieved and her spirits immediately lifted when Aoyama stopp__ed in front of her, hands on his knees and panting from exhaustion._

_ "Aoyama-kun?" __Ichigo asked, staring blankly at the boy._

_ "Ichigo, how many times do I have to tell you? Just call me Aoyama." He smiled at her, exasperated in an adoring way. How the former Mew missed his smiles. _

_ "Sorry,__o__ld habits die hard, I guess." Grinning nervously, Ichigo's mind was __wheeling __now that the happiness had died down a bit._ What does he want? Is he going to break up with me? I hope he doesn't! Please just be asking something, please just be asking something! Preferably something good!

_ "Oh, I know. But as usual, I just can't catch up to you whenever I ask for a date. I always put it off 'till after school. And our teacher doesn't let us out of class until-"_

_ "Wait, Aoyama-kun-" She paused and quickly corrected herself, while blushing, of course. "Aoyama. Did you say you're asking me out on a date?" Having stopped panting, Aoyama stood up straight. His chest was still heaving a bit, though. _

_ "Do you not want to?" The boy asked, already looking down-cast. "It's just that I wanted to talk to you about something, and we haven't been talking much lately. I feel bad about that."_

_ "No, no, no! I want to go Aoyama! I really do! I... also have missed you an awful lot." _

_ "__That's great! Meet me on the bench overlooking the river. You know, the one where we had one of our first date__s!__"_

_ "Alright. What time?"_ That was a date? I could've sworn that I had misunderstood the reason he had asked me there!

_ "6:00 PM. And please try not to be late this time!" He started to turn away and run back to his friends. "I don't mean to sound rude, but it's important today!" He threw over his shoulder. Ichigo turned slowly, in a dream like state, and walked home. By the time she got to her house, she was already jumping for joy and squealing at the top of her lungs._

"I'm so happy!" She exclaimed, skipping to the bench that Aoyama had talked about.

No sooner had she plopped down on the bench, that Aoyama came jogging down from his house. When he stopped near the spot where Ichigo was waiting, he slowed to a walk, looking mildly surprised.

"Wow, you actually got here before me. Did you wait long?"

"No, I just got here a few seconds before you." _A few years ago, I was usually half a__n__ hour early, but there was always some trouble or another with a Chimera or Kish._ Ichigo shook her head, trying to get thought of the narcissistic alien out of her mind. _It's all behind me now, besides, I have Aoyama as my boyfriend, and Lettuce, Mint, Zakuro, and Pudding as friends, and that's all I need._

"Great, lets go." The distant boy tried his best to smile for her, but it seemed fake even to him. He wasn't going to get mad this time. He was going to love her. He loved her before, right? Of course he did. He **had** loved her. That was the problem. It was in the past. He had moved on, but she still loved him. So, he had decided to just wait until Ichigo grew tired of him, just like he had of her. _Yeah, that's good._ That's what he had said to himself over and over again. But this day, he was going to end it, gently. He didn't want to hurt her. He didn't love her anymore, but he still cared for her to that much of an extent. He wasn't going to yell at her, or ignore her.

Ichigo sensed that something was wrong, but she ignored it. The girl was going to enjoy this date if it was the last thing she did. So, she let Aoyama lead her all around Tokyo, visiting all the places they had gone to on their dates. She noticed that it was strange, but, yet again, she shook it off. But what was even more unnerving was that the places were almost in order.

At the end of the day, Aoyama led her back to the bench and sat down. He turned to her, realizing that he hadn't looked at his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend all day. It turned out to look more like he was staring at her to Ichigo, though.

Ichigo did something that surprised Aoyama, but then again, it didn't. She smiled. Though it wasn't one of her cute smiles of happiness. It was a smile of deep sadness at the acceptance of heartbreak. _I think she knew since the beginning._ When that one sentence ran through the boy's head, he started to get angry. No. He was going to talk to her rationally and calmly._ This girl will shed no tears, well, at least as few as possible. I won't make it worse._

"Ichigo, I think you know why I really asked you out here. You've known from the start, right?" Again, all he got as an answer was that same sad smile.

"Yes, Aoyama-san." She was already back to using honorifics. It wasn't even Aoyama-kun this time. _Well, I suppose it's for the best. I guess this is her way of starting to get over something._

"Well, I guess that makes it easier on me. But what about you, Ichigo-san?" He answered her use of distancing with his own.

"It would be hard on me anyway, right?" She still had that sad smile on. It was starting to annoy Aoyama.

"Ichigo, can you please stop with that expression? It starting to get on my nerves." _Oh no. No, no. This isn't good. It just slipped out. All that effort to hold it in and act like a gentleman for nothing. And it's just going to hurt her more. Oh, God, Oh God._ The girl in question looked even more hurt. For some reason that irritated him more. "I was trying to be nice about this, but you keep on doing things that get me upset more and more. At first it was cute how you would always be reserved, late for everything except meals, and have burdensome expressions. But now, now it's just something to laugh at with my new girlfriend." Ichigo got more and more hurt by his words. Since he had already ruined everything, he might as well add the finishing touch.**"SOMETIMES I WISH YOU WOULD JUST DISAPEAR!"** He opened his eyes and looked around for the irritable girl.

"Huh, guess she ran off..." He slowly got up and started to walk home. What surprised him the most, was that he didn't really feel sad, or guilty, at all.

But little did Aoyama know, that Ichigo had gone somewhere where no one on that planet could reach her. All alone, scared, and hurt at Aoyama's words, she was in a very, very, very far away place. And she had heard everything that her Ex had said.

**A/N: Hi, everybody that actually read this. It's my first story, so I have no idea how long it is, yada yada, yada. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a long story, maybe even a sequel will be created. It would make me extremely happy if you reviewed to let me know you read this. Even a simple "I read this," would make me act like I just won the lottery. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!**

** Just to clarify, I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING! This is purely for my own amusement and laughs. **

** Oh, and I hope no one was OOC. I think Aoyama-kun was, though. 2 years is long enough to change that much, right? *Sweat Drop* Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2: The forest of riches

Part 1

"Hello?" Ichigo searched the trees for something, anything, that would be familiar. But there was nothing. "Aoyama-san? Aoyama... Aoyama-kun?" She started to panic, turning around and around. Something was even strange and... dangerous about the trees.

The girl that was starting to get tears in her eyes. "Mom? Dad? Lettuce? Mint... Pudding? Zakuro? Come on guys... come out..." Again, Ichigo started immediately thinking about Aoyama. "Please... anyone... just... come out... **Aoyama!**" At her outburst, Ichigo took in a small, jagged gasp. She had just been dumped by Aoyama...-san. Why had she been so stupid? Why couldn't she just do everything right? Maybe then Aoyama-san wouldn't have dumped her. If she had just been like him, just had been... perfect. But that was impossible for her. How many times had she tried to be a match for him? She had lost count a long time ago. Why did he break up with her? She knew that she was... inadequate.

_"__But now, now it's just something to laugh at with my new girlfriend."_

_What had he meant then? _Ichigo shook her head from such thoughts and decided to see if she could find a way out of the forest. _Forest? I could have sworn that I was standing next to the bench near the river._ She started to turn around fervently again, she had done this action many times, but her body seemed to do it instinctively.

"Well, I guess I'm not in Kansas-Tokyo- anymore, Toto-uh... I suppose I could change that to Masha..." She trailed off, lost in thought of her cliché sentence and editing on how to make it a little less... well, cliché. But she was thankful for the distraction of her previous train of thought. She shook her head. That was beginning to be a habit. "Argh, listen to myself. I'm in a strange place, don't have any idea of how to get back to some sort of civilization, let alone how to get back home. I guess I am kinda like Dorathy." She giggled to her self, then plastered on a serious expression on her face. She raised her hand up above her head, brought it down so that her fist was almost level with her chin. Breathing out of her nose, Ichigo put all thoughts of Aoyama, break-ups, and heartache, away for the time being. "All right! Time to get going! I can't get upset and completely give up! I'll ask Aoyama-san all of my questions when I go to school tomorrow! Now it's about time I tried to get out of here." With that, she turned in a random direction and walked forward.

"I hope this is the right way to go." She looked back, then, with all new vigor, she swiveled on her heel back to the direction she had walked out. Oh come on, baka. Now's not the time to start becoming a coward. If you do, I bet Aoyama-san won't even talk to you." She stomped towards a tree that was... silver. She looked the tree up and down. _Some people do weird pranks now-a-days. _Hurrying around the tree, which Ichigo assumed was someone's(who had a lot of time on their hands and was handy with a spray can,) idea of a practical joke, she came face-to-face with yet another weird tree. Only, this one was gold.

"Okay, sliver and gold trees. Straight out of a fairy tale. Nice." Dodging this one, she realized that **all** of the trees in front of her were colored gold. Yet again, Ichigo turned back, only for a different reason. Instead of cowardliness, it was out of baffled curiousity. Behind her, most of the trees were gold. But she could pick out a few more silver ones like the one closest to her left side. Apparently, deeper into the forest, the trees were silver. _I wonder what I'll find if I go even deeper that way? Wait, even then, what if this is going deeper? I could be turning away f__r__om even the slimmest chance of finding some one to help me._

Ignoring all thought process, she stepped closer to the gold tree in front of her. It shimmered like it had glitter put into the paint. Ichigo slowly raised her hand. Hesitating, she kept on reaching and retracting her hand from it's bark. Eventually, she got her finger to slide down the smooth surface. _Smooth... it's actually smooth... HOLD IT! Smooth? __Smooth?__ How is that even possible! Hold it__-__again! Isn't there a tree where it's kinda smooth? Yeah, it's that type of tree._ The girl scratched the surface this time, but nothing but a bit of dust came off into her hands. Quickly, she strained to look at the bark. Well, it should've been easy to look behind the gold paint, but there was nothing. The spot where Ichigo had scratched looked the same as the rest of the tree; like it was solid gold.

Stepping back, amazed and scared, the former Mew backed up from the tree and started to run around all the strange towers of riches. Stopping for a second each time she was forced to look at another one. Eventually, she squeezed her eyes shut, so she wouldn't have to look at the hints that she wasn't anywhere near her house, let alone Tokyo.

When she opened her eyes, there were a little less trees. More greenery and shrubs could be seen. Well, if you could call them by those words. The "greenery" was... black. Not like they were to the point of burned or something like that, but almost as if it was meant to be that color. The shrubs were, and Ichigo didn't know how-or why-the person that designed the place picked the color, but the shrubs were a bright purple, the kind that looks a little pink and hurts you're eyes if you look at it long enough. _I think people call that... fuchsia._ Still staring at the whole new level of craziness, Ichigo quickly adapted to the surprise and continued on. _I guess I really do adapt well. I became a Mew, and now I'm stuck in a strange place, which I suspect is__ a__n__ amusement park. Good for me. _

_ I guess I did head in the right direction, the trees ar__e starting to thin out._

Still thinking, the girl sensed that someone was following her. They were just watching and they only moved forward when she did, but the stalker had a sense of foreboding. Ichigo stiffened, then ran ahead, trying to lose whatever it was that was like a predator stalking it's pray. She wondered if it **was** a predator. Then again, the former Mew didn't have the time, nor the will, to look back.

It might have been two seconds, it might have been five minutes, maybe even one hour, but it seemed like a lifetime to Ichigo as the thing started to fall back. All of a sudden, a gap in the forest appeared, and Ichigo jumped right into it. The black moss and grass gave way to dirt, and the trees disappeared from in front of her. She could still see the trees from a few meters awau, but it looked as if she had run onto a trail from the side of said trail. The young human looked to her left, and saw that she **had** come across a trail of sorts. Though, it was more of a dirt road then a hiking path.

Without knowing what else to do, Ichigo looked to her right.

There, standing in the middle of the road, were two men. Well, one was a man, the other was a seventeen year old boy, just a couple years older than Ichigo was.

The man was maybe in his early twenties. He was tall, with a stoic expression on his face. With gray eyes, and hair color that was just as strange as the forest; it was a cloud at an early sunrise, the ones near the horizon that were a stormy purple. Impassive, observing, and out-of-reach for those that want to touch him. His hair was mostly cut short, all except a small pony tail that was put in the strange place of on the right side of his face.

The boy that was around her age, and had hair that was just a little darker then emeralds. _Yes, I suppose that the color is like what the trees __were__ supposed to be colored. Lik__e he sucked all of the life's color and put it on himself. The color of evergreens._ Pale, with almost lanky arms and legs, he seemed like he could be a weak sort of person. But he was not. If you looked closely, you could see the lean muscles, and see the strength in the boy's amber gold eyes. _He took life's color as his hair, and painted them the color of his eyes._

The boy, after taking Ichigo in as she had him, dawned a surprised, even horrified, expression.

"Ichigo? Ichigo? What the... why are you here? Never mind why, _how?_" Evergreen and gold was all she could see. Then her vision started to focus. She noted the long, slightly wide, pointed ears on the two. Recognition seeped in before the edges of her vision started to become dark.

"Kisshu...?" Then, for the second time that day, Ichigo lost consciousness.

**A/N: Before I forget, thank you all for the reviews everyone! By the way, I really did act like I won the lottery. I squealed like a little girl; I am a girl, just a little older of a girl. (^^) Sorry to every one that I replied to with spelling errors! Gomendasai! (Heck, I don't even know if I'm spelling that right, (the "Gomendasai!") ya' know, the English way.) Oh geez, I'm not making any sense. Ignore me, ignore me. Either way, now I know what people talk about when they say that reviews are their life energy.**

** I also know just how late this darn chapter is. (Really? 2 weeks? I have no excuse.) Sorry every one. I had taken a look at the first chapter online, and I realized that it was incredibly short. So, to make up for both mistakes, I made it a little longer.**

** By the way, the chapter's not over yet. I was gonna stop the chapter here, but I wanted to give you guys a longer chapter. Please enjoy!**

Part 2

"Her mind is very repetitive. Frankly, it's getting on my nerves." Pai had hooked the girl that Kisshu referred to as "Koneko-chan," up to a device that would somehow put her mind's words into writing. Kisshu didn't bother reading it and left it up to Pai. Instead, he took in Ichigo's looks.

After two years, Ichigo had grown from an extremely cute 13 year old, to a beautiful girl of 15. Her hair hadn't changed much, still the same simple beauty of a maroon wildflower on the side of one of the many roads on Earth. Delicate, like it might break and wither away if you picked it. And what the young alien had seen on the road just before she recognized him, was just that. She had broke and withered away. The humans had called Pai, Taruto, and Kisshu aliens, but that was no longer the case since he was on his own planet. But the nick-name had grown on them, and was a sort of habit now. Her small form was still petite, it looked like she had only grown a few centimeters in the two years that they were apart. Kish knew that Ichigo's eyes would be the same warm brown as they had been. She still smelled of strawberries, too.

"Really? What's she saying?" Kisshu asked, curious about getting inside her head. She had always managed to surprise him with her actions and words.

"'OMG! OMG! OMG!' Over and over and over again, and it's starting to get annoying." Kisshu collapsed on top of the table in front of him from shock, his upper half of his body leaning against the cold metal. Banging the table, the no-longer-an-alien started to shake from hysterical laughter.

"That's so like her!"

Pai scrutinized the space in front of him. "I'm even beginning to think it's starting to rub off on me already."

"Uh, Pai?"

"Yes?"

"Don't you think it's a good idea to get her off of that thing?"

"Why should we?"

"Because Koneko-chan is starting to wake up. I don't want her mad at me, so at least let her wake up in a bed. Oh, who am I kidding? Odds are, she's going to be yelling at me no matter where she wakes up. Koneko-chan will most probably **blame **_**me**_ for her sudden appearance." Kish looked up at Pai with his usual smirk in place, where as the other just glared down at the his friend.

"You. Don't. Want. Her. To be mad. At you?" The older man punctuated almost every word. This couldn't be a good sign. Kish quickly reassured his comrade.

"No matter how amusing, I don't want to start off our reunion on a sour note. I'll fool with her later. After we sort this all out." Pai nodded, content that his friend had not completely fallen off the edge like he had 2 years ago. But it would only be a matter of time, just like back then. He took off the monitors that were on the girl's head. Motioned to Kisshu that he was free to take the sweet smelling girl up to the guest room.

"It really was lucky that you didn't go deeper into the forest to the copper trees, Koneko-chan. Then I never would have found you. Heck, you're lucky that we were the ones that found you even." Ichigo decided to try to stay asleep, she couldn't be hearing that voice. It was just impossible. "So, tell me, Strawberry, when are you going to open your eyes to see this great face of mine? I realize it might be sparkling a little bit too much for you're taste, but-"

"What the heck are you rambling on about?" She opened her eyes as she interrupted the voice of the unexpected face of a certain alien she hadn't seen in two years. For a split second, Kish's eyes widened before they narrowed and a smirk, as expected, replaced a slightly open mouth.

"First time you see me after so long, and that's all you have to say." He turned his face away in mock anger, but his golden eyes stayed locked on her. "If you're going to interrupt me, you might as well do it with a greeting." He sniffed. Ichigo had never seen him talk to her like she was a person before, (save a few times,) and it was almost captivating.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, then."

"Come on, Koneko-chan, I know it's been a couple of years, but you don't have to be so formal with me. Though, I must admit, you never said any sort of greeting even back then, so it's nice to hear." As Kisshu rambled on again, Ichigo was getting more and more red in the face. Not from anger, but from embarrassment. Kisshu thought it was cute, and waited for her to say something a little less formal. Of course, he didn't expect her to call him hubby or anything like that.

"O-o-oha-ohay-oha...you," she was stuttering like Lettuce did most of the time! "Kisshu." She finished it off with icing on the cake; she exploded a little when the former Mew flushed from head to toe. It just had to happen when Ichigo had said his name. Everything around her had just the **best** timing these days, didn't it?

**AN: Aw, Ichigo's still in denial. Cute little Koneko-chan. Okay, really, really, am sorry that I took twice as long as I should've in updating. It's my first story... okay, no excuses. I tried to make it really long. Hope you enjoyed. And thank you to all of those people that read this extremely late chapter.**

** Oh, and ohayou gozaimasu is the formal way to say good morning. Ohayou is informal. **

** Anything you didn't understand, or if you have advice, opinions, and... well, just anything. I don't care. Just review, please! I promise to try to get updated really soon next time. **

** Thank you Paranoid Fanatic for the extremly funny review and, yes, it was meant to be the Vocaliod song, Namless Song, right? And no you don't listen to too many of they're songs. Because if you did, that would mean I listen too much to them also.**

** Thank you Cyber Girl for reviewing twice, and are you happy with where Ichigo is? ;) I think I said that in the summary, didn't I? Oh well. :3**

** Again, sorry for any mistakes, and review! Thank you very much for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3: First Screams

**AN: Okay, I know I don't usually write AN in the beginning of my chapters, but I forget things**

**and get sidetracked easily, so, I look forward to all of your reviews, and you can leave as many, long, long, or long, reviews as you want. Like I said, I'm lovin' 'em. I plan on adding as much humor as possible to my stories with out it being overloaded or desperate. (I still need to save ideas for the upcoming chapters.) But a lot of people, like Paranoid Fanatic, gave me hilarious reviews and thank you for that. I'm just sad that I can't reply to all of 'em... the button that lets me talk about anything I want... where is it...? (I'm referring to the bubble next to the reviews that I get that allows me to reply to them privately.)**

** Anyone that wants me to reply, or not reply, to people in my stories, review**

**down below here. Really, anything you want to write about in a review is welcome. Especially if**

**it's just a random ramble, like this one. I'm done. On with the new chapter! \(^o^)/**

"Alright, let me get this straight. For some reason, you don't know why- or how- but I'm... on

**your **planet this time." Ichigo stated suspiciously. After she had woken up, (and as usual, it took her a

few moments to remember details after a nap,) she had started off bombarding Kisshu with questions,

not giving him a chance to answer them. His prediction had been right on the mark and Koneko-chan had almost immediately assumed that her sudden appearance was entirely his fault. It had taken over an hour to manage to even begin correcting her accusations. Even after two more hours spent on arguing, the group of male Cyniclons had yet to convince Ichigo that they had as little of ideas on the matter as she did.

"_**Yes!**_" Both Kisshu and Taruto replied, in union, exasperated. Pai simply nodded his head once.

Only those closest to him, like Kish or Taruto, knew that his expression was as irritated as it could get.

Which meant that to Ichigo, the oldest male in the building's eyebrows were slightly furrowed. Yep, that's as complicated as Pai's expression got.

"Either that, or we all got transported to a different dimension that looks a heck a lot alike to our

world." Ichigo seemed to get perplexed at Kish's suggestion. "Strawberry, that's not possible." He tried

his best to sound gentle.

Really, the tone didn't suit him. It just sounded creepy. Ichigo tried to compare Kish's version of

Aoyama's normal, kind, perfect tone with, well, Aoyama's normal, kind, perfect tone.

_ ~Oh, stop deluding yourself! That sentence is self-contradictory, just like Aoyama. A person_

_can't be normal and perfect at the same time! He certainly is not kind, not with the way he treated you_

_yesterday.~_

_ Well, Aoyama-san pulled it off! _Oh dear, she had just replied to a voice in her head. She had a

voice in her head to start off with! But said voice had fallen silent.

"Old Hag? Are you listening?" The question came with the youngest not-so-humanish boy's

face drifting into view to break Ichigo's train of thought.

Almost immediately, Ichigo raised her voice quite a bit, "DON'T CALL ME OLD HAG!" The

sentence roared out of the former Mew's mouth by habit. Everything that had happened two years ago

was still firmly implanted in her, even if the cat DNA wasn't. Now that she was around the three aliens

again, it was starting to show.

"Hmph." The youngster grunted, trying to hide the fact that he had been taken back by the girl's

sudden outburst. "Then maybe you should try listening to people more often." Tart had, like Kish, his regular smirk on his face. Though, there was a slight difference in the two facial expressions. Yes, Tart's was more childish. Which wouldn't be surprising, considering he _was _a child, though he would never admit it.

"If that would make you stop, I would gladly do so." The girl retorted hotly.

"Even then, I wouldn't stop, Old Hag." The smirk was still in place a second after the child toppled to the ground with the weight of said, "Old Hag" pouncing on top of him. Kish, desperate to stop the fight, as funny as it may be, said something to get Ichigo off of the alien child. It was half blurted out for a wanting of Ichigo's attention, though.

"You know, Strawberry, I forgot to mention this, but I kissed you in your sleep." It wasn't a lie. He counted one time he had kissed her on his planet, but had lost track of how many times he had on the girl's. Kish went through all the times, sleeping or not, he had done the very thing she hated the most, and he the least. In fact, the almost-a-man loved it. Even that word did not cover the feeling, but it was the closest he could come up with to describe the joy he felt when kissing her. Hey, he might lose track of the number, but that didn't mean that Kish didn't remember every detail.

Ichigo's blank gaze soon turned to a furious glare, only instead of being directed towards Taruto, it was pointed at it's more common target: Kish.

"When?" Her sweet voice barely held the anger and embarrassment that she was no doubt feeling.

"Hmm... I think it was around 7 hours ago." He replied in a cool, almost bored, manner.

"Where?"

"Where in location, or where on your body, Strawberry?" He threw the question at her, fazing her for the longest yet, four seconds.

"Both."

"Upstairs. On you're body? Just on the lips. Don't worry, Koneko-chan, I didn't see anything you don't want me to. However, my hands... well, with my past behaviors..." He let the sentence fade off, watching as Ichigo's face turned beet red and she pounced on him instead. Of course, he had only touched her hair. Anything to get her off of the kid. Kish was starting to get jealous, and he was **not **picking a fight with someone that wasn't even half his height. The young Cyniclon, despite being almost twelve years old, was only the height of a child of eight.

"You.. you... PERVERT!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as the two toppled to the ground. _Ow._

"Just like old times, huh? I seem to remember this exact pose before. Only there were clothes to make the fall not hurt so bad." Indeed, the former Mew had Kisshu's arms pinned to the floor with both of her own hands, sitting on his stomach. To make matters worse for her, brighter for him, she was starting to remember all of the situations from the past, blushing an even deeper shade of red. She flipped up to her feet as fast as she could. Kish already missed her warmth and intoxicating smell.

"Hmph! Stop imagining things, Kish. As I'm sure I made quite clear two years ago, although apparently not clear enough, the only one for me is Aoyama." It seemed to her that she kept on having to remind herself not to be familiar._ Distance... distance... distance._ Kish frowned.

"Well, at least you're not on a first name basis. But the lack of honorifics after that guy's name are too familiar for my tastes, Koneko-chan." A thought occurred to him then. "By the way, Strawberry, what happened the the brat, anyway? That's the first time I've heard you mention him since you woke up, and that's a long time for you. Have you actually got over him yet?"

That's when everything came crashing down on Ichigo. All the things that happened to her came flooding back in a flash. The agonizingly long periods of no contact, the last date, the break-up, the argument, the strange, sudden transportation, the even stranger forest, the wandering through said forest, the predator (as she had dubbed it,) and the reuniting with old enemies. It was all too much. All those awful things had happened in only sixteen hours at most.

So, she did the only thing she could do to vent out all her grief. She bawled her eyes out, tears pouring out of her eyes. The three males could do nothing but gaze at her, startled and at a loss of what to do, with different expressions on each face. Pai was just the same as he had been two minutes ago, unfazed by the sudden outbursts. Taruto was shocked and openly confused, his arms lifted towards his chest and stomach, as if to protect himself from the former Mew's tears. Kish had stood up as he was talking, his hands at his side, concern and worry written all over his face. He stepped to where Ichigo had collapsed to her knees, and wrapped his arms around her without a second thought. For once, Ichigo was too involved in crying to push Kisshu off.

Eventually, she fell asleep, tears still wet on her face and pillow. _I guess they moved me to my bed, _was the last thought she had before she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of a happier life.

The next morning, Ichigo woke to the sound of screaming. Flashing her eyes open immediately, she almost jumped out of her bed. Almost. When she tried to stand on the bed to see what had been happening, she was pulled back when someone grabbed her arm.

Twirling her upper body around, she saw a flash of dark green before gold speckled eyes were all that she could see. "Kisshu?"

"Good morning again, Koneko-chan. Nice of you to want to help them, but it's safer here. Besides, Pai and Taruto are more than enough to take care of **it**." He smiled so his eyes became a slight curve of lashes and fake calmness.

"'It?'" Another wave of screams resounded from the open window across the room. "Kisshu, what's happening out there?" She tried to pull away, but, like usual, she couldn't escape his grip when he wanted her to stay in one place.

"Sorry, Strawberry. But like I said, it's safer here."

"Let me go!" The former Mew pulled again. Kish did not relent. "Why are you even in my bed?"

"I beg to differ, this is **my** bed." He threw that statement at Ichigo, causing her to pause. That was all he needed, Kisshu pulled on the maroon haired girl's arm. As she landed back on the bed, Kish straddled her stomach. Looking over her form, the male let his true emotions shine through. His eyes rested on her neck. _It's not too bad to just rest my head there, right? Oh, but then again, even the most innocent of my actions has sent her off on a rampage. Would she still rather jump out the window than let me touch her?_ For one second, he thought. _Yes, she would._

"G-Get off me, you pervert!" Kish glanced up to her adorable face. It was, as he had guessed, a deep red. Her expression was intoxicating, addictive, and dangerous. Indeed, it would be his demise just like it had been two years ago. **Two years**. Two years he had went over everything that had happened. Two years he had regretted almost everything he had did. Two years he had pinned over someone that had made it quite clear that he could never have them. **Two years.**

Suddenly, he didn't care. He didn't care that she would be furious that he even touched her. Nothing else mattered right then. Kisshu didn't think that he should stop, that he should just leave. He had left two years ago. Nothing had come from it but pain. She was there, and had no one to turn to besides him. He knew that she would be extremely unhappy. No, she would be just plain miserable. But, he just couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.

Lowering his head, his nose brushed the side of her neck. Breathing her in, he spoke her name. Not one of his many pet names. He didn't call her Kitty-Cat, nor Strawberry.

Kisshu the Cyniclon called her Ichigo.

The human girl knew from past experiences that Kisshu only called her by her real name when he was serious about something. She could gather that, usually, he never referred to anyone with their real name. But when ever the situation grew grave, or he felt the need to replace his usual mischievous attitude with a sober one, he would address you properly. _As a sane person should, and Kisshu's what a sane person would call "unbalanced."_ She took a deep breath, counted to three and repeated her words.

"Kisshu, get off of me already. I have no idea what you're thinking, but I'd appreciate it if you stop now." He seemed to not be paying attention as he nuzzled the spot just below Ichigo's chin. She startled at the action, grabbing Kish's arm that held her left hand at a third attempt of getting him to release her. Instead of relenting as he normally would, with his free hand, the Cyniclon grabbed Ichigo's hand that was scraping against his arm. Holding onto both of her wrists with one hand, Kisshu traced the former Mew's jawline. He kissed Ichigo's neck. Again, a shock went through the human girl's body. "K-Kisshu..." The alien chuckled, his breath traveling down her neck like a second shiver had run through her.

"Consider that payback for earlier. You attacked me-like I am to you right now-for the second time since I met you." She could _feel_ his smirk.

"Tha-That was different! You know it was different!" Ichigo's voice raised, getting desperate not to let Kisshu keep his misunderstanding.

"Yes, yes, Ichigo. I suppose you're intentions were completely devoid of evil thought." He drew back. Just as Ichigo let out a sigh of relief, he quickly leaned down again into her neck, and softly bit her. Sitting up, the Cyniclon finished his words. "Unfortunately for you, my intentions are not so innocent." He closed one eye and stuck out his tongue. Releasing Ichigo, Kish got off his bed and out of the room.

Ichigo ran to the bathroom that she just now happened to notice. _I couldn't have been __**that**__ distracted by Kisshu... could I?_ She looked in the mirror. The face that stared back at her was terrifying.

She was flushed. Her eyebrows were still set in a confused position, the thicker ends pushed up nearly behind her bangs. Along with some other parts of her face set in certain positions, Ichigo looked... like she had wanted Kish to stay with her. _No! No! I'm just lonely without anyone else to turn to! Think of Aoyama. _

_ ~But Aoyama broke up with you.~_

_ Well, yes, but I still love him._

_ ~Yeah, sure. And I'm not a voice inside your head.~_

_ But... you __**are**__ inside my head._

_ ~No-!~_ The voice drew her answer out, managing to make the word a sarcastic comment. _~When did 'ya figure that out, Blondie?~_

_ I'm not blond, dimwit. _The voice grew silent for a time. Ichigo began to think that it had been sent dumbfounded into the recesses of her mind.

_ ~I beg to differ. But, honey, I'm only "dumbfounded" by your stupidity.~_

_ Oh! How dare-_

_ ~Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heard it all before, darlin'. Look at your neck. 'Ya know, the place the hot Cyniclon bit.~_ Ichigo did as she was told, grumbling at the voice for not knowing what the hell she was talking about. However, the mumbles stopped dead in their tracts as she realized what was on her neck. She opened her mouth wide, and took a deep breath... _~Oh boy, this is gonna hurt.~_ The voice stated in a bored tone.

This could not have been better. Ichigo was locked in **his** room. He had dreamed and fantasized about things around those lines and more, and unbelievably, it was happening for real. When she had run to the bathroom (Kish didn't understand why she did, but shrugged it off when he figured it helped him out in the end. He wasn't going to let Ichigo run towards the chaos the creature always left, let alone see it. She probably wouldn't be able to handle it, and get herself killed trying to help. That was also one of the many things that happened two years ago.) Kish had locked the one window in the room, and also the door when the left. The fragile human "princess" was safe.

_Now, to deal with the causalities._ Already, the soldier mask was slipped on over his carefree smirk. _Damn that monster, waking Ichigo._

When he started down the stairs, a very loud scream came from the bathroom.

**"HENTAI!"**

Allowing a smirk to sneak through his mask before hiding again, Kisshu continued down the long flight of stairs. "I CAN'T BELIVE YOU GAVE ME A HICKEY! YOU COMEPLETE AND UTTER MORRON! I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!" Still listening, Kish made it to the door. But he didn't have to listen that hard to hear the next rant. **"WHY IS THIS DOOR LOCKED? ANSWER ME, KISSHU!"**

_Oh, this is bound to be very entertaining._

**AN: How late am I? I'm doing a fantasy writing camp and I got a laptop for a 9th grade entrance present. Or is it a 8th grade graduation present? Oh well.**

** Any way, now I'm going to be writing on this story for at least two hours at least each day, so expect improvements. Thank you again to all who reviewed and read. Whatever you did in the past, please review! Do I have to beg? 'Cause I will.**

** I feel very... uncomfortable explaining what hentai means. But every one that watches anime has to have come across the term at least once. Those of you who don't know and are curious, I have advice. If you search for it online, don't search on images. If you don't know what it means, you will be disturbed. Be safe, kids.**

** P.S. I hope you like this chapter. Ichigo/Kish fluff! XD I call it that but it's just another one of Kisshu's random attacks. -_-' **

** I'm sorry if anyone was OOC. Or if anything I referred to was wrong. I remember Taruto calling Ichigo "Old Hag" in the dubbed version, so I decided that was what he would call her. Among other things, I researched the character's ages and names. I'm not sure if my information was correct, so anyone that wants to correct me, feel free to. I need all the help I can get.(Like whether or not Aoyama is his given name or not. Always get confused with that one.) It's been at least one year since I watched the series. I mostly only remember Kish and Ichigo scenes, so like I said. I need help remembering details.**

** REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 4: Imprisonment & Interrogation

**AN: I was looking back at past chapters, and realized it was difficult to figure out when there was a change of POV with the way it was. So I came up with a type of symbol for that. Gomen for all the confusion!**

-...- = Change of POV.

-_- = Time passing.

"No!" Ichigo sat up in bed, in a cold sweat. Looking at something that Kish had said was a clock, (he still had not let her out of the room yet, and had told her things through the door, not chancing anything,) she estimated that it was about eleven fifty at night. Almost midnight.

The "clock" was somewhat of a sundial. It was a round slate of stone on a pedestal, with two triangles sticking up from two grooves that mirrored the circle of the stone from the inside. In the bottom of each of the perfect, circular indents, there looked to be a metal band of sorts. Surprisingly, there were familiar V's, I's, and X's all around the edges of the stone in different combinations. The end product looked something like a mix of a sundial and a modern, two-handed clock.

Ichigo looked away, reminding her self that it was just a dream. _Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream._

_ ~Again with the delusional thinking. What is wrong with you?~_

_ Oh great. Not __**you**__ again. I don't have time to be dealing with a voice in my head. Go away so I can at least act sane._

_ ~Fine. But before I go silent, I need to tell you something.~_ Ichigo contemplated it. It's not like she would remember anything a couple of hours from now.

_Okay. What is it?_

_ ~Need I remind you that you had just heard screams like that this morning? Before the knight in shining armor distracted you with a hickey? Though how you could be distracted with something so minor I have no idea.~_

_ It wasn't minor!_

_ ~There are better things he could do.~_

_ Those things wouldn't be better! They'd be worse! You're just as much of a pervert as he is._

_ ~I won't deny that. 'Cause it's true. But at least remember the screams from this morning. Who's idea was it that you had to be the hero two years ago? 'Cause they're stupid.~_ Ichigo decided to end the conversation for a change. When did she get that annoying, perverted conscience? Oh yeah, when she came to this planet. Besides, Ichigo didn't want to admit that the voice was right. Ryou was an idiot.

"Grr... wait a sec. The screams from this morning..." Not for the first time since her moving into Kisshu's house, Ichigo was lost in thought. "Oh My God! The screams are the same! What ever I dreamed about is hurting people! What if it was that thing that was chasing me in the forest?!" With too many questions and absolutely no answers, Ichigo ran to the door. Only to be reminded that a certain irritating Cyniclon had locked all exits to the room by ramming into one of said exits.

Taking a step back, Ichigo took another deep breath.

"**KISSHU! COME UP TO THE ROOM!**"

"Koneko-chan? Why are you still awake?" Kisshu's innocent question went unanswered, as usual.

"Kisshu! You have to answer all of my questions before I go insane." The Cyniclon had rushed up to the room, but refused to come inside, let alone unlock the door. Ichigo was seriously considering teaching herself on how to pick a lock.

"Sure, Strawberry." Came the muffled reply through the door after a brief pause. The tone was soft, sympathetic. How long had it been since Ichigo had heard that type of voice from someone besides her parents and friends. And yes, she was singling out her ex-boyfriend. After about a year, Aoyama-san had gradually become distant.

"Okay, first, there's a new problem, right? Some kind of... monster?" There was a longer pause that lasted around twenty seconds.

"Sorry, Ichigo. I just realized that I can't answer your questions after all." Ichigo took a step back, blankly staring at the wooden door. He was serious. The former Mew knew because Kish had used her name. "Well, I'm going back to the couch. Talk to you in the morning when I bring up breakfast."

"How are you going to get it to me if you don't unlock the door?"

"Koneko-chan, have you forgotten my little teleportation ability?"

"I seem to remember a lot of things about you. For instance, the fact that you forgot to bring me lunch yesterday!" Ichigo felt silly arguing through a door. She didn't even know if Kish was still listening. But her self-conscientiousness was driven away by the Cyniclon's answer.

"Lunch? Oh-! Right, I remember that human's eat three meals a day." It was Ichigo's turn to pause, only in irritation.

"Oh, really. Then, tell me, how many meals do you Cyniclons eat?"

"Two."

"Well, you sound chipper." Whereas she was extremely grumpy.

"If I come in and you don't try to 'hurt' me, I'll answer all of you're questions." Kisshu rushed to change the subject. He was almost happy to, if not for the fact that the topic was equally dangerous, if not more.

"Trust me, I don't mind. But the answers will cost a pretty penny, won't it?"

"More like a nickel. In your eyes anyway. For me, it's practically free."

"Oh, great." Ichigo imagined all the things the pervert would think of. "Then I'm a dead person."

"Alright. See ya!" A scrape came from the other side of the door, indicating that Kish had turned on his heel.

"What?! Again?!" She rushed to the door and pounded on it. "Kisshu wait! I won't hurt you when-if- you come in! I-I'll even pay you the... nickel or whatever the heck it is!"

Still throwing her tiny fists at the door, a pair of slender, pale arms appeared from behind, wrapped around Ichigo and gently pulled back the wrists that the long fingered hands had gripped. A calm voice soothed the former Mew, like she was a frightened animal.

"Shh, Strawberry. Otherwise you'll wake up Pai. Pro'lly not Tart though. The squirt can literally sleep through the night in a war zone." Ichigo stilled, signaling that Kish could release her. Instead, the forest haired boy, or was it 'man' now, turned the girl to face him.

"Okay, okay." She stage whispered, wanting to sound mad but also not wishing to wake up the other Cyniclons in the house. "You have to swear something though."

"Sure, but you do know I'll most likely take it as a formality."

"What ever. Just humor me, you arrogant, pompous, perverted, treacherous, two-faced, nearly satanic alien."

_~I think some of those names are uncalled for.~_

_ Shut up already. I'm not schizophrenic._

"Alrighty, you cute kid."

"I'm only two years younger than you."

"Yeah. You wanted me to swear to something?" Ichigo paused, almost positive she wouldn't find a Christian Bible in Kisshu's planet.

"Do you have a type of holy book in your house?" Kisshu looked at her funny, then shrugged and plucked a thick, paper-back book off a nearby table. He handed it to her, the smirk back in place. "Okay. Now place your right han-WOAH!" Kish had let go of the book, and Ichigo had fallen to the ground. Without the support Kish had given, the heavy, leather-bound book had weighed the former Mew's limbs to the floor in two seconds flat. Indeed, she was sprawled across the floor in the most uncomfortable of positions. Her stomach was laying on top of the cow of a book, her arms bent so her elbows were raised to the air.

"Ichigo? Don't tell me it's too heavy for you?"

"Kish?" Her voice was muffled, seeing as how her mouth was filled with off-white carpet.

"Yes, Strawberry?"

"How many pages are in this thing?"

"Why, it's only 50,983 pages."

"Only?!" She managed to turn her face up to him. He had a strange mix of expressions on his face, amused seriousness. _Only __**he**__ could pull that off._

_ ~I have no idea how you can give this guy the cold shoulder.~_

_ Obviously, it's because he's too... strange._

_ ~At least you have the decency to admit that he's unique.~_

"What is it?"

"Shut up." Ichigo told the both Kish and the Voice. "Either way, help me up will you?" Ichigo managed to get on her feet after Kish somehow made the book float, allowing the former Mew for free her hands.

"You hold the book, and place your right hand on the top." Ichigo completed her order, with a few revisions.

"All righty."

"I have no idea why you've been so... complying."

"I can be agreeable. It's just you who's anti-social."

"Whatever." She brushed off the tease. She was getting used to Kish again. In fact, she was starting to get along with Kish more than anybody in her life. It was more like meeting an old friend rather than former enemy. _It's weird._ "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" Glaring arrows of fire, Ichigo waited for the Cyniclon's answer.

-...-

Kish bit back a giggle at how kawii Ichigo was being. He was so happy that she was all his. No one could have her. _No one._

"I do." Kisshu decided to humor her. After all, he would get his reward after the first question was answered. Perhaps more, if she decided to ask more questions. And he knew she would come for more. Whether she wanted to or not. Nothing irritated Ichigo more than unanswered questions.

-...-

Ichigo didn't like the tone he used when he swore to tell the truth. On the other hand, she **really** needed those answers. If she didn't get them, she felt as if her head was going to explode.

"First question, who was that screaming yesterday morning?"

"That's all, Strawberry? You should think more on your questions."

"Why?" Kish smirked. It was one of his more dangerous smiles. The kind that looked like he was going to calmly strangle her at any moment. This type of expression could mean two things. One is the obvious, he was seriously going to try to kill her. The other is that he was going to attack her. The type of attack that involved kissing and her laying on a flat surface of some kind. The second seemed more probable considering the situation.

"Because... never mind. You'll find out soon enough." Ichigo tipped her head to one side, but waited for Kish to finish answering. He looked straight at her, a smirk still firmly in place."Well, it was the people who live in the huts outside of this mansion." Kisshu looked away just as quickly as when he looked at her, showing on purpose a sign that he was lying. If he got her to ask more questions, his reward could be given twice over.

"Hey!"

"What is it?" Turning his gaze back on Ichigo, he saw a scowl on the former Mew's face.

"You didn't answer seriously!"

"Yes I did. I told you who was screaming so early in the morning." Ichigo's eyesight started to get blurry and the back of her eyes started to hurt. _Oh, god. Am I really going to start crying in front of Kish? Again? For something so stupid?_

-...-

"Baka!" Kish's eyes got wide as the salt water spilled over her cheeks. Again. After only what felt like an hour, he made her cry again. His Koneko-chan was right, he **was** an idiot. But just as Kisshu was starting to regret fooling with her, Ichigo looked up at him. "Why do you always play around? Baka. Baka-bakashii." This was, ironically, the cutest expression Kish had ever seen. Ichigo sniffed, choked back a sob and squeezed her eyes shut, fresh tears running down her cheeks. Kish gulped, sweat starting to break out on his skin.

"Sorry, Strawberry..." Kish dropped the book, and wrapped his arms around Ichigo's waist. He laced his hands and let them rest on Ichigo's lower back. "But I really would like my reward for answering your question. Even if it wasn't done seriously." With that, Kisshu leaned down and kissed her. He relished it, knowing that at worst, it would be quite a while before he would have an excuse to kiss her again. _You'll love me eventually, won't you Strawberry? You'll come to tolerate this horrible personality of mine, won't you, my Koneko-chan? You've got to. I won't let go of you again. Not again. Not again..._ Then, Kish lost himself in the kiss.

**AN: Oh dear, angst, perverted thoughts (mostly on Kish's part,) and Kish is a sadist. Sorry guys, what the heck am I making you read?! And I am so sorry for the really late update. Plus it's so short! I'm ashamed. Deeply, deeply ashamed. I had a big, big- case of writer's block, and I wish I could have wrote the part when we could get some fights scenes. But all I gave you was fluff, angst, and sadism. I hope none of you have given up on me!**

**Sorry to those of you that recently read this. I updated the wrong version. And dang it! I gave away my plans for the next chapter! Sorry about that, and please, please, please don't comment or remember anything from the last bits... geez...**

** Excuse me while I go cry in a corner...'**

** REVIEW TO MAKE ME FEEL HAPPY. Wow that's selfish... I have an excuse.**


	5. Chapter 5: Myths

**AN: Okay, for those of you wonderful faithful readers, check the last chapter you read. I uploaded the unfinished file, so if you didn't read the finished version, you'll be a bit lost. So I recommend checking, just in case. Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's move on to the next chapter! This one takes place right off from the last update.**

-_- = Passage of time.

))))))))= Flashback/Dream sequence

"Kisshu!" Ichigo exclaimed, pushing against the Cyniclon's chest. Her breath came out in hot puffs, the former Mew's body having acted on it's own accord. She had actually **let** Kish kiss her long enough for her to need to pull away in need of oxygen. A _kiss_. From _Kisshu_. She was so astounded that she stumbled back a few steps, nearly tripping over a stool and chair in the process. "What the heck are you doing?! What type of payment was that?!"

"The kind that I like, Koneko-chan. Now, do you want to ask anymore questions? Or do you quit?"

"I'm not going to sell my lips just for answers!"

"Strawberry, you're not selling anything of yours. I'm just choosing my payment and taking it by force. If memory serves me, I believe the Japanese, or human's in general, call people like that... Loan Sharks. Yes, that's it. You can call me that if it makes you feel better."

"I do not think it is quite the correct term for what you are referring to, Kisshu." A new voice stated in a cold and detached tone. The pair twirled their heads around to find a very irritated Cyniclon. Namely, a very irritated Pai.

"H-h-how long were you there, Pai-san?!"

"Please calm down, Mew-" Pai paused, going over the more reasonable ways to address her, and quickly decided on one. "Ichigo Momomiya." The oldest Cyniclon corrected. Ichigo nodded and took a deep breath. After she relaxed, she swiftly pulled away from Kisshu's arms. She also realized that the door was open. _Yippee. Time to make my escape._

So, the former Mew dashed past Pai, promptly sticking her tongue out at Kish, and ran down the stairs, and through the hallway to a room that she remembered as the kitchen. Or more recently known as, "the-room-where-we-Cyniclons-had-to-argue-with-Ichigo-for-over-5-hours."

"Now, can you please explain what has been going one here? What problem does your planet have now?" Ichigo swiveled around on her heel to face the two Cyniclons that had chased her down the stairs.

"As if you could help, Old Hag." Taruto yawned as he stepped in the room. Kisshu had apparently woken the little devil up. Darn him.

"Hmmph. Be quiet and let the more reliable ones do the talking, Little Runt." She retorted.

"Wha-?! Like you're one to talk, Old Hag!"

"Why you-! Wha'd 'ya mean?! You stupid kid!" Taru growled at the girl, not sure if he could say what was on his mind without Kish killing him first. He thought to tone it down a bit. But it didn't make much of a difference.

"What I mean is that even when you had that useless cat DNA inside of you, you were still, I don't know, USELESS! Now you're even more so."

"How dare you say that!"

"It's true! All you've been doing since we saw you again is whining and crying! You're a useless old hag that can't even find her way back home and is only causing trouble for us! We don't need your help, and we don't want it!" The kid was getting tears in his own eyes as he went on. "I hate you, Pai doesn't have any feeling except irritation, so he doesn't count, and you're starting to make Kisshu crazy again! All because you were there, Kish got demoted! It's all your fault that Kish had to go through everything, and me and Pai weren't able to help at all!"

"Please stop." Ichigo interrupted.

"It's you're fault!"

"Stop it." She was talking in between Taruto's remarks. Both voices growing louder and louder.

"You're useless!"

"Stop it already."

"I wish you-" Before Taru was able to finish that same sentence that was spoken in the same way by Aoyama, Ichigo clamped a hand over the young Cyniclon's mouth.

"Just stop! I don't want to hear it again!" She screamed, her voice bouncing off of the walls, echoing.

_Don't want to hear it again..._

_ Want to hear it again..._

_ Hear it again..._

_ Again..._

Taru leaped away, and teleportated to someplace that Ichigo couldn't care less as to where it was. But before he left he muttered a single question, "Gonna cry again?" _No, I won't. I won't cry._

After the whole ordeal, Kish coughed, bringing attention to himself once again.

"Alright. Why don't you tell me and Pai about that dream you had. The one that woke you up at such an ungodly hour." He attempted a smile, which didn't suit him in the least. "Besides, the squirt wouldn't be much of an audience anyway." Ichigo blinked, then nodded.

"I suppose it would serve as **reasonable** payment for all the trouble I've caused until now." Kisshu coughed again, but only to hide the smirk, as Ichigo began to recall the dream.

)))))))))

_ Ichigo was running through the forest again. Except instead of heading to the little dirt road, she was running away from it. Gold gave way to silver. Then silver slowly melted into a brownish-reddish color. But the rust had, instead of a dull shade, a certain glint to it. Metallic. Copper. After the silver trees there were copper ones._

_ Despite the sense of danger, Ichigo felt as if there was really no better choice as to where to run. Indeed, the girl was stuck between a rock and a hard place._

_ The predator was back, chasing her deeper into the forest. She knew that she was being driven into a corner. _

_ So she ran. Ichigo ran, and ran, and ran. Her legs were trembling, but Ichigo forced her limbs to work. She had a stitch in her side, and still the former Mew lopped past the last of the color of copper. _

_ Ichigo stopped dead in her tracks. What lay on the other side of the forest was awful. It was a horrible, pure evil. Her legs gave away from both fright and exhaustion. Her mind felt as if it was slowly crumbling away. The girl screamed as the last bits of her sanity fell away, revealing something black. When all that was left in her mind was nothingness, her terrified screams melted into hysterical laughter. Standing up, Ichigo faced the predator that had chased her to the edge of sanity. Both literally and figuratively. _

_ "So, you're going to kill me here, huh? Very well. Everyone knows that you're going to kill everyone on this planet." Ichigo's voice did not even sound like her own. But she passed it off as a part of her insanity. "Why? Why did you have to awaken just after we revived this planet? All we want is peace! Why can't our people, the Cyniclons, have happiness?!" Our? We? She was human, not one of the aliens that she had fought against for over a year! Her shoulders relaxed, indicating that she had said what she had wanted to. "You're going to kill me now, right? Get it over with." The girl's voice was calm. Ichigo was being something that was always against her very being, submissive. _

_ That's when Ichigo realized she wasn't Ichigo. As the monster gazed at her with predatorial eyes, she saw herself. She had dark blue hair and eyes. It was tied in one long simple braid that was falling half way undone. It may have fell apart during the chase. Not-Ichigo was a 20 year old woman. The monster's tail twitched, and Not-Ichigo's eyes flickered towards the movement._

_ The monster mostly resembled a panther. It's body was that of a huge black wild cat, but it's face was that of an old man. A white beard and oily mane of hair swept the ground. It's eyes swirled with gold, silver and copper. Once in a while, there was a flash of other colors. Pink and purple intertwined. Black flooding through before bleeding away. At the shoulders, more black spanned over the horizon in the form of raven's wings. The monster was 5 times as big as a normal panther, possibly 10 times bigger still. The old man's face smiled, a laugh that resembled static humming from his throat._

_ "I never existed when this place was a desolate waste land. I was created when the grass grew in the very spot you're standing on. As the trees grew from saplings to 10,000 rings thick, I grew at the same pace. I am barely 2 years old though, same as the trees and grass and bushes." Not-Ichigo blinked at this new information. Oh, if only she could tell someone before she died. "And my dear, happiness? Peace for the Cyniclons? Don't be ridiculous. You impertinent beings were destined to be wiped out as soon as you ran away from you're home planet." The monster took a step forward, and the woman fought the urge to retreat. "Now, my dear, let me eat you." The last thing that Not-Ichigo saw with her own eyes was black fading to copper._

)))))))))

The true Ichigo shivered, still frightened from the horrible dream. No, it was a memory. A memory of someone who was killed by a complete monster. Looking up to the two older males, the girl urged them to say something. Silence was expected from Pai, but Kish was never silent. After what felt like infinity, Ichigo dashed up to Kish.

"Tell me what that thing was! Don't say it was just a dream! Because if it was, it would be gone from my head by now instead of staying here in my memory to terrorize me! What was it?!"

"Ichigo, calm down. I'll tell you." Kish managed to tear Ichigo off of his shirt. "Okay, let's start with two months after we left Earth. When we finally came back home." He paused, prodding the former Mew to say something, but she refused. Kish took the silence as a sign of apprehension.

"Our people were on the brink of death. They only had two days of air left, and an even less amount of nourishment. We got here just in time." Again, Kisshu paused, remembering memories that he had hoped were the last time he would experience. Pai nearly shuddered. "We didn't waste any time. We used the Mew Aqua that you guys gave us on the Surface."

"Surface?" Ichigo couldn't help but interrupt. Covering her mouth, the former Mew bowed a little and signaled for Kish to ignore her.

"It's okay, Strawberry. It's probably going to be really confusing. The Surface, before we used the Mew Aqua, was basically a waste land, with constant earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. So our people lived underground. The tunnels are still around, just in case something happens, and we're supposed to be building up a storage in them."

"Kisshu, enough of the background story. If the human girl insists on being nosy, then I would like to get this over with." Pai was the one to interrupt this time. Kish glared in his friend's general direction, but turned his attention back towards Ichigo with a sigh.

"He's right. Now, if everyone can stop interrupting me, I can 'get this over with.'" The two continued their bout of silence. Kish spoke again.

"It was wonderful. Beautiful. The volcanoes subsided to mere hills. The earthquakes stopped and the ground healed. Grass, trees, flowers, bushes, they grew in front of our very eyes, a bit strange in color, but no one cared. Everyone was happy, which is an understatement. Remember, our life was a living hell before, so we'd take anything we could get. Even black grass and pink shrubbery." He was smiling. Kish wasn't grinning, or smirking, or even wearing his 'happy mask.' (Another set of names that Ichigo had come up with, Kish's fake expressions.) Kish was full on smiling with complete sincerity. Ichigo wondered if she was still dreaming. She kept on seeing things that had never happened for almost a years worth of time, in only a few short days. But Kish's smile was quickly replaced by a frown. Two words that could describe his expression would be: serious and sorrow.

"But along with the peace of nature, we created a monster. A killer. We call it the Beast of Predators. It's been terrorizing the people since we immigrated back up to the Surface. It's keeping the people that bring the food savings to the tunnels from completing their jobs. No one who has seen it has ever been heard from again. The villagers of the places that have been attacked, merchants, messengers, travelers, women, children, pets... anyone that ventures out of their homes have been attacked. It's not safe. Again. We were stationed here to try to keep the village safe, but now there is no one. We're the only people in this town, Koneko-chan. Everyone's gone."

"Honey, that's why I've kept you locked up. You need to understand, you can't step out of this house. As soon as you do, you'll disappear, or worse. You need to stay in this house. At least until we can go out with you. Which will be soon by the way, we failed in our job here, so we'll get ordered to the next village. Please Strawberry, just stay in the house." Ichigo blankly stared at Kish, lost in thought. This was getting insane. No, it had been insane as soon as she had been sent to that forest. The Cyniclon glanced away from Ichigo, then back to her, away, back, away, then back again,

"We have a lot of problems, don't we? Us Cyniclons, I mean." He whispered, just loud enough for Ichigo to pick up. She thought for a moment on how to answer, then decided to just say what she truly believed.

"Everyone has problems. It's just a matter of how much of them we can name."

Two days had passed since Kish had told her about the monster and it's origins. Thinking back to the dream, not for the first time, she shivered. How could something so... so evil, so monstrous, be created from Mew Aqua? It was impossible. How could that happen? The Mew Aqua was supposed to ever only create beautiful things.

She shook her head, and pressed on down the stairs. She stopped short when she saw a weird type of bird, some kind of mix between a falcon and crow in the window. Maybe it was a raven instead of a crow, but that wasn't the point. Ichigo leaped down the last few steps and cautiously reached for a letter that was clasped in the bird's beak. In turn, the bird nipped at her fingers, drawing blood. Obviously, it was well trained to not relinquish the letter to anyone but the owner of said letter, that, and it's beak must be sharpened to a knife point every day, 'cause that **hurt**! A giggle reached Ichigo's strangely sensitive ears. She turned around to see Kish, and Taruto, the one who had laughed at her.

"Are you okay, Strawberry?" Kish quickly stalked to the bird, grabbed the sealed letter and promptly shooed it away. He handed the parchment to Taru, mumbling an order for the boy to take it to Pai. Kisshu gently held the hand that had been bit, studying it more than necessary. The 17 year old Cyniclon mumbled curses that had to do with birds and how he wanted the people that trained them to go to the same place as Deep Blue.

"It's fine. Don't blame the bird. It was doing it's job. I think it was a good little... what was it called?" Ichigo tried to calm down Kish's mouth, while pulling her hand out of his grip. She succeeded in neither. How could he barely be touching her, and still manage to keep a hold on her hand?!

"Roc. That's what we call 'em anyway. The..." He stated in a distracted tone, moving on towards much more imaginative curses on the birds.

"'Roc?'"

"In human mythology-Persian, I think- there's this big bird of prey, right? We figured it might fit since it's the only animal that can fly high enough so the monster can't get it."

"Yeah, but they're supposed to be big. Huge. They can even pick up baby elephants even, supposedly. Some even say it's white. Black's the opposite of white, you know." Ichigo tried to distract Kisshu again. He looked up for a moment.

"Huh" was all he said. He picked her up,-Ichigo protesting rather loudly-teleportated back to the room, and plopped her onto the bed. Ichigo watched as he went into the bathroom, and came out holding a small metal box. "We gotta treat it, Koneko-chan. Allow me." He opened it with a click, took out the necessary-and unnecessary- equipment, and got to work.

"I think the point of that nickname is void by now. Don't you?"

"Nope. Besides, even if it was, it's a habit now. Can't change it. You still act like a cute little kitty-cat anyway."

"I do not!"

"We can go in circles, or we can change to different subject. Which would you like?"

"The latter."

"Good." Silence. "So, got any good ideas for what we can talk about?" Kish had his 'cheerful mask' on when he looked up from his work.

His 'cheerful mask' and 'his happy mask' were different. His 'happy mask' was only fake calm, while his 'cheerful mask' was for when he was pretending that he knew when something was going on.

"Are you an idiot or what?" Ichigo gaped, a bead of sweat appearing on her face.

"Don't call Kisshu an idiot, Old Hag!" The sudden appearance of a different voice startled Ichigo. Her eyes flashed towards the door, seeing Taruto. But something was different about his expression. Instead of the expected determined glare, he had tears in his eyes. The child swayed, then fell to the ground. Ichigo dashed to catch him, and held on to the child's shoulders.

"Taruto, what's wrong?" The young Cyniclon started to sniff and hiccup.

"You want to know?! Old Hag, Kish is going to have to go with the doomed!"

"Go with the doomed?" Ichigo repeated, completely lost. She glanced at Kisshu, and his expression terrified her. It was horror. Whatever it was that Ichigo was missing, the Cyniclon had understood it perfectly. "Taruto, what the heck are you talking about?! What's going to happen with Kish?!" He looked up at her, then started sobbing all over again.

"Ichigo, I've been ordered to protect the people in charge of bringing the food savings into the tunnels." Kisshu's voice was small, weak, at first. But as he continued his next sentence, it grew stronger with determination. Like he was agreeing to a challenge, sure he would win. "I've been ordered to die."

**AN: I didn't read A La Mode, and I haven't watched the anime in a long time. So I might have made some mistakes. If I did, please tell me. I think the aliens were able to get some Mew Aqua from the gang... or they wanted to get their planet back on their own strength... oh dear, I think it was the later. Sorry, but if I don't say it was the first idea, the whole story will come crumbling down. Sorry about that, and please work with me here.**

**REVIEW PEOPLE! I DIDN'T SAY THAT LAST UPDATE, SO I'M MAKING SURE TO SAY IT NOW. REVIEW! PLEASE!**


	6. Chapter 6: Stalkers

-...- = Change in POV

-_- = Passage of time

"Absolutely not! No! It's not happening!" Kisshu nearly screamed.

"Why?! I might not have cat DNA in me anymore, but I might be able to help! Somehow..." Ichigo retorted, jumping up from the kitchen chair, her voice rising along with Kish's.

"_Why?!_ Because, Strawberry, you yourself are not sure how you will be able to help. Among other reasons."

"What other reasons?!"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Kish gracefully rose from his chair and turned towards the exit. Ichigo growled as he made his way to the door. The 3 Cyniclons and human were in the kitchen, discussing ideas for how to try to help Kish survive the order he was given. As Ichigo had watched Kisshu's determination waver, then fade to almost nothing, she had made a very stupid decision. Kish wrote off the girl's need to help the Cyniclon as left over remorse for him dying for her. When she had suddenly announced what she was planning, there had been a rather long period of silence before Kish's outburst.

"Try me." Kisshu paused, and snapped in a quarter turn. The former Mew could only see half his face.

"For the same reason I died for you."

"I don't remember you ever verifying that reason." _God, how can this girl be so thick?_

"Because I love you Koneko-chan. I always have and always will. I can't believe you would forget that." He turned away, and teleportated, not bothering to walk through the door.

When he got to the living room, which was his makeshift sleeping quarters-seeing as how Ichigo was sleeping in his bed-he collapsed on the sofa. Throwing his arm over his eyes.

The living room, like the kitchen, was large with lots of space in between the furniture. There was an army green satin sofa, with matching foot rests, a glass coffee table and game chest, lamp posts that gave off a lime green glow, and a wooden rocking chair.

The rocking chair stood out, wood against glass, brown against green. Kisshu glanced at it through the gap that his arm failed to close. _That chair is kinda like Ichigo. She stands out, makes people want to get rid of her sometimes, but you still can't bring yourself to do it. You want to throw her out, or rip her to pieces and burn her, anything so you won't have to look at her. But that's where she's not a freaking rocking chair. She makes you want to look at her, not away. While this chair just makes you think it's common, Ichigo's cute. No, she's not cute anymore. She's beautiful. You want to destroy her, then __**yourself**__. God, and she's so oblivious, she doesn't even realize what she does to a person. She doesn't realize what she does to ME. _He paused for a second, then screamed in his mind, _why am I even comparing her to a rocking chair?! I knew I was crazy, but still!_

Kish's mind ran around for a bit more, sometimes growing into fantasies, sometimes just questions like, _What does she even see me as now anyway? An enemy? No, she's not __**that**__ much stuck in the past. A friend? Hm, maybe. Definitely not a lover. _He thought for a bit more, then smirked like he usually did when he got an idea like this one.He focused on Ichigo, and was rather surprised to find that she was in the doorway.

"Come in, Koneko-chan."

-...-

Ichigo gasped when Kish suddenly spoke. She had assumed that he was asleep.

"You were awake?"

"Did you expect me to sleep?" Kisshu sat up with a groan. He had been unusually silent. Was that how Kish always was when he was alone? Or was he just worried about the order he was issued? She stepped into the room, and looked around. The lights were weird.

"It looked like you were." The former Mew answered honestly. He turned toward her, and he had that look on him **again**. Wanting to try to avoid him when he was in the mood to attack her, she swiveled to the door, rushing to get out as she nearly screeched, "I'll come back when you're not so tired!"

As soon as she took the first step, she rammed into him. _Kami! Why does he always find the need to teleport right in front of me?!_ Her nose stung, and when she was about to yell at the Cyniclon, a pair of arms wrapped around her, drawing her even closer than she had been. She tried to speak, but her voice was muffled by his shirt. His arms just grew tighter as she wiggled to get away.

"Mmph! Mmph~! Mm-"

"Be quiet for a second, Strawberry. I want to tell you something." Ichigo paused, then started to struggle all over again. "Please! Just listen!"

"Mmph~..." He chuckled, probably amused that the girl was giving in. What was wrong with her?! She was supposed to be doing everything she could to get away from Kish! Not... not being submissive to all his whims. This was insane! **He **was insane! _He can be such a yandere sometimes, I seriously don't know how he'll attack me. Every single time, I think, 'kill or kiss?' I'll admit that it's usually kiss, but I think he at least considers killing me. Oh, Kami, what am I thinking?!_

"One of the reasons I don't want you to come, Koneko-chan, is because you're not a Mew anymore. You don't have special powers, you don't have agility, or anything. You're the girl you used to be. Normal. And here, on my planet, especially with these times, a normal human means a weak link. I'm not saying that I think of you that way- well, at least not in that negative of a way- but I **am** saying that other people will think that.

"Even if I do let you go with me, the journey won't be like here. Where the worst you get is Taruto calling you names and throwing tantrums, and Pai ignoring you out of irritation. It's going to be out right hostility. And as much as I'll want to, I won't be able to. Not unless this goes way out of proportion and someone tries to kill you. If you go with me, you'll mostly be on your own. So, please, for my sake, please don't insist on coming." He finally let go of Ichigo, she quickly took a few steps back, but looked at Kish curiously.

"And what's the other reason?" Kisshu froze, eyes on the sofa.

"Can you really not guess?"

"Hm? Guess what?"

"I've already told you a million times, Koneko-chan. The latest of which was just half an hour ago in the kitchen." Ichigo remembered, blushing from head to toe.

"What? But you never mean those sorts of things, do you?" Kish whipped his head around to face her, then floated in the air and zoomed to her in a second, their faces just inches apart. He was furious, but Ichigo could not understand why for the life of her. And she thought her life was very much in danger.

"Strawberry, what's it going to take for you to believe me? Should I act out all my fantasies? Should I hold myself back and, God forbid, not touch you anymore? Should I just say those three words over and over again to you every time we're alone? Or should I just scream it out loud in a public place? What should I do, Koneko-chan?"

"Y-you-" Kish cut her off, not really wanting to hear her answer. You guessed it, he attacked her in the romantic way. Let's just leave it at that, shall we?

Ichigo woke up early the next morning. No way was she going to be submissive any longer. She washed her face and got ready for the trip. She packed an estimated amount of food she would need, along with only the necessary amount of supplies. When she tried to pick up the first aid kit, the human found that it weighed almost the same as the "Holy Book of the Cyniclons." Another quaint nickname. Ichigo managed to pry the metal box open and grab some bandages and gauze, along with disinfectant. _If there's going to be a fight, they'll need some healing supplies. I bet no one's going to bring anything, thinking it doesn't matter. Well, I know Kish's going to live, and so am I. But we'll probably get banged up for it. So, plenty of supplies._

Ichigo slung her pack over her shoulder and tip-toed down the hallway, stairs, and out the door. The sunlight was blinding, and the former Mew had to cover her eyes and look down to the ground.

The black grass was boiling hot, attracting the abnormal amount of sunlight... Ichigo managed to look far off to the horizon, and noticed that there were three suns. She had already seen the five or so moons from her window, but had not expected three freaking suns! She briefly wondered what the planet's orbit was like.

The door opened, and Kish stepped out. Luckily, he was facing the inside of the house. Ichigo searched for a place to hide. She found one in the largest bush around. Strangely, it wasn't a magenta shade, it was more of a maroon. A perfect match for her hair color. She jumped inside as quickly as she could, trying to make as little noise as possible. She succeeded in getting to the middle of the bush, just not in the silent aspect. Kish's head popped behind the door, looking straight at Ichigo. _Darn him and his too good hearing._

"Is it possibly the little kitty that likes Ichigo-la-bushe? Come out of there." Kish walked towards the bush. _Did he name a bush after me? Now that's just creepy Kish._ "Come out." The Cyniclon shaked the bush, causing some of the leaves to scrape Ichigo face. She yelped in surprise, but it sounded more like a "Nyanaa~!"

Kisshu blinked, then a weird sound came from his mouth. He covered his lips with a fist, trying to stifle the laughter. Ichigo looked closely at him through the leaves, wanting to try to remember his true smile, which so often was covered up.

"Thanks, Neko-san. I'm sure I already explained to you that I can't call you Koneko-chan because that cute name belongs to another cat. I'm not usually one to play favorites, but she's my all time favorite. Always will be." He sighed, looking depressed. "She's up in my room now. It's going to be her room soon, too. I named this bush after her, but she'd probably think that it was stalkerish." _You're darn right._ Ichigo thought bitterly. "Even I think it's weird. But when we used the Mew Aqua, this bush was the first to appear. It grew right in front of me."

"Did you know the ruler of this planet asked us for anything we wanted? Pai asked for our own house wherever we were headed, equipped with all kinds of technology. He named them all, and I didn't understand a thing he said. Taru asked for us to stay together. The little sentimental twerp. Know what I asked for? I asked for this bush. Didn't tell anyone why, and only Pai and Taruto understood it's meaning."

"I hope that she'll like this bush. It's not just a bush, either! I suppose it's the Cyniclon equivalent of a strawberry bush. It grows really delicious strawberries. It just reminded me so much of her, I couldn't help but give them the same name. Besides, I never thought she would be here to hear it. I think the others won't even tell her." He sighed again, then got up and turned to a type of wagon. "Bye, Neko-san. Say hi to Koneko-chan for me."

With that, he flicked his fingers and the horseless wagon lurched forward. Ichigo ran behind it, pulled the tarp up and over her when she-with surprising grace-leaped in the near empty back. She felt a moments apprehension, but threw it away and left it there laying on the road.

**AN: Yay! A chapter that actually was updated on time! It's a little short though... I'm planning of combining this chapter and the next after a couple more weeks. It's just too short! I've worked out a better system for writing my chapters, so expect better results!**

** Those of you who don't know what yandere is, the characters the term comes from can mean, loving and insane. Look it up, I think Wikipedia has a better explanation.**

** I just want to say thank you all who have reviewed, read, and given their continued support. I really appreciate it. When this story's finished, I'll give a virtual cookie to everyone that's reviewed, favorited, and/or followed. Thank you everyone! And sorry for any errors in this chapter.**

** AND PLEASE REVIEW AGAIN! ARIGATO TO ALL OF YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE! **


	7. Chapter 7: Abandoned Stowaway

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew, nor do I own Star Trek. The story, minor characters, (except Pai and Taru, but I see them as bigger characters) and the Beast of Predators are all mine though. The world is based off of the things in the show, so it's not really mine.

-...- = Change in POV

-_- = Passage of Time

It was a long while until the cart stopped. Perhaps Ichigo laid down on the hard wooden bottom for an hour, maybe a day. But it was dark and cold, and very uncomfortable. The former Mew was almost ecstatic when the cart stopped.

Her smile snapped away like it was a twig as soon as the tarp was lifted.

_~Oh dear. I can see where this is going.~_ Ichigo nearly gasped when the voice-which had been silent for a great length of time- suddenly spoke up. It was right too, the current situation wouldn't end very well.

_I wonder what he would do if it was someone other than me._

_ ~The hot Cyniclon with the horrified face would probably look furious instead and rip the person limb from limb.~_

_ The scary thing is that that's believable._

_ ~No kidding.~ _

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Kisshu had finally managed to regain his voice, and it was a very loud voice too. Ichigo thought fast, and immediately acted out the first thing that came to her mind. And we all know what happens when Ichigo doesn't think things through.

"Tee-hee. Well, you know me, stubborn!" Her face beamed and flowers appeared. She also made sure that you could see the 'Moe' written above her head. It worked for about a second, but, as per usual, it only managed to shock Kish momentarily.

"Don't 'tee-hee' me!" On the 'tee-hee' part, the Cyniclon mimicked Ichigo's expression, then snapped back to being furious.

-...-

As he continued rambling and scolding, Ichigo started shaking. It wasn't in anger, nor in fright. Kisshu nearly didn't believe it. Ichigo. Was. Laughing. And in front of him no less! He didn't get it, but he ceased his talking and struggled to imprint the image into his mind.

-...-

When the girl calmed down, she looked up at Kish. Her eyes had watered from squeezing them tight, and she wiped at them. She was still breathing hard, but she managed to sputter out, "Yeah, but what does it matter? I'll be fine. Trust me."

"...I don't think that's very fair, Strawberry." He mumbled, his hair casting shadows over his eyes.

"Huh?" A bead of sweat appeared on the former Mew's cheek. Her mind raced, trying to think of a new idea to get out of the situation.

"'Trust me?!' Are you kidding?! How am I supposed to trust someone that never bothered to do the same?! When did you ever trust _me_?! Can you think of a time you did so?! There are none that I can recall, and I would think I'd remember!" Kish reached out and grabbed Ichigo by the back of her shirt. He pulled her out of the cart, and dragged her into a building.

"Um... may I ask where we are?"

"Hotel!" The almost-a-man snapped behind his shoulder, still dragging the girl behind him.

They made a beeline to a floating, rectangular piece of metal. Ichigo realized that it was a desk. A middle aged female Cyniclon sat behind the counter-like board. The woman looked up from the space of air that she had been waving her fingers on. When the woman's fingers hit the air, a square light would appear, which had Ichigo assuming that it was a type of computer.

"Oh my, how surprising! A traveler! You do realize-" The older woman had started interrogating, but Kisshu cut her off, in a very bad mood indeed.

"Yes. I'm well aware of the danger. I've been ordered to 'protect' the ones in charge of transporting the savings. Are you open for business, or am I going to have to chance finding another place?"

"Well, we are open to anyone... but why have you brought a girl with you?" Kisshu sighed, then glared at the woman. He was being extremely rude.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I had a foolish, arrogant stowaway. Can you guess who the unfortunate soul is? Hm? It's this utter moron here." He sighed again, trying to rein in his temper. "I'm sorry. I would like a normal room, please." The woman blinked, then calmly answered her grumpy customer.

"Yes, sir. Anyone would be in a bad mood. I won't pry anymore." She smiled kindly, turned to a rack behind her, and took off a small trinket. Ichigo didn't get a good look, but it looked like a small coin.

"Oh," Kisshu smiled down at the girl that was still captured, "and please make it a one bed, please." He put on his "happy mask" and waited as the woman replaced the trinket in her hand for a different one.

He plucked the coin out of woman's hand, and stalked to a gap in the wall. Ichigo struggled, not wanting to fall down an elevator shaft, but Kisshu ignored her efforts. As soon as they stood in the middle, the pair lurched upward, and the former Mew's stomach said hi to her throat. It was over in less than 30 seconds, but Ichigo was still terrified as Kish dragged her down a hall, clicked open a door that looked like the slide-open-and-closed-doors from the foreign T.V. show, _Star Trek_, and threw the girl onto the bed.

"I wanted you to trust me too. But did you? No. You never have trusted me, and I'm beginning to lose hope that you ever will." He took off his boots, and dropped them to the floor, taking a deliberate step towards the bed. Ichigo sat up, her arms shaking from his magma gold gaze.

Kisshu was dressed in charcoal colored long pants that flowed and sort of billowed away from him when he moved. The shirt was white and long-sleeved. A pair of strings criss-crossed the from the collar to the chest, showing skin. Kish untied the strings, letting them dangle.

Ichigo studied this person. She had fought with him for almost a year. When the aliens and humans had finally managed to get over their differences, the group of Cyniclons left for their own planet.

She had been content at first. After all, things had finally gone back to normal. The Mew leader was a regular girl again. She had Aoyama-san as a boyfriend, he emailed her all the time, and they could even sometimes talk on the phone for a short while. She would blush when ever she heard from him. The girl had been so happy, so excited when Aoyama-san had come back from studying abroad. He had still been caring then, just a little distant. But everything had gradually disappeared. Fading, just like Aoyama-san's love for her.

The former Mew never exactly missed Kish, Pai, and Taru, but, still, she had always wondered if she would ever get along with Kish after the fighting stopped. She never thought she would get a chance to find out.

Ichigo, who had been busy thinking, startled when she felt the bed sag under additional weight. Kisshu had crawled onto the bed, and was leaning over her.

"So, Strawberry, do you still dare to ask me to trust you? After you have proven time and time again that you are incapable of returning the favor?" Ichigo's eyes widened, but she morphed the shock into a glare.

"Yes. Stubborn, remember?" She lifted a hand and jabbed her pointer finger at her chest, then the same happened to Kish's chest. "But you're an arrogant, despicable, perverted, sadistic yandere stalker. And for some reason, my only thing close to a friend in this world. So I'm not going to sit around and let you die. Even if we have a repeat of what happened in the fight between Deep Blue, I would rather that happen. The choices I see here are only two. Sit around and wait for news of your death and regret doing nothing. Or, I could go with you and regret not being able to do anything."

"See?! You don't trust me to live!" The Cyniclon gripped Ichigo's shoulders and pushed her back down onto the bed.

"You're right! I don't trust you. I probably never will. But you didn't let me finish!" Ichigo raised her voice as Kish's lips came closer to hers. He pulled back and told her to continue. She let out a relived sigh and calmly started up again. "That's only the choices I have. There are at least four situations that I can think of. One, I wait there, worry, by some miracle you come back alive, and we move on with our happy lives for a little while. Two, I wait there, worry, you die and never come back, I cry, and eventually die because I don't have any idea how to live here. Number three's outcome is a combination of one and two, I go with you, try to fight, hold you back, you die, and I blame myself for all eternity. Four, I go with you, we fight this thing and live, we go back to the house and live happily ever after. Now, what do you think is going to happen? Remember, I'm stubborn so no other situations in existence." Kish though for a second.

"Well, seeing as how you're stubborn, number one and two are out of the question." Ichigo offered a firm nod, both confirming and telling Kisshu to continue with his analysis. "Four is impossible for every reason except the fact that I'll live." Ichigo frowned, disappointed that he wasn't getting her point. _Who's stubborn now?_ "So I'm guessing on number three. It seems the most probable, given everything."

"WRONG! WRONG! WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! SO DANG WRONG!" Ichigo nearly screamed. Kisshu almost jumped off of the former Mew. "It's most definitely going to be four! It will be four, and it won't be anything else, you ba~ka!" The girl stuck her tongue out, and tried to squirm out of the Cyniclon's grip while he was still out of it. It didn't work so well. _Dang, he always recovers from things so fast!_ He grabbed her waist with his hands and pulled her back under him. Leaning down to Ichigo's ear, he whispered three words that had her blushing brighter than her hair.

"Situation one, two, three, nor four will happen Koneko-chan. 'Cause I've thought of a different situation." Kisshu added before he opened Ichigo's mouth to press his lips to hers. Something was forced down her throat, and the Cyniclon pulled away to kiss her forehead. She started to feel sleepy. Her eyes slowly closed, but she reached out to try to grab the retreating not-a-man-yet, filled with a sense of urgency. "Sorry, Strawberry, but there is one other situation, and it's going to be the only one. I'm stubborn too." That was the last thing the girl heard as she sunk deeper into unconsciousness. The last thing she saw was a shadow disappearing behind a door.

When Ichigo woke up, she would find that Kish had hired the kindly, though an old gossip, Cyniclon woman who ran the small hotel, to take care of her. The woman was also asked to keep her there at all costs, which made it extremely difficult for the former Mew to get out of the building and chase after Kish. But she managed to do it. By following the tracks from what Ichigo hoped was the cart Kisshu was driving, she struggled to catch up. Each morning she wondered why the Beast of Predators had not attacked her yet.

The reason the Beast of Predators was not attacking Ichigo was because he was stalking a group of frightened men with carts full of food and supplies. One of the Cyniclon men was Kish. He was nervous, but had a new found determination. He was going to live at all costs, for the little girl that he thought was snug in bed. When will that Cyniclon ever stop being arrogant? Ichigo would never listen to him. Not in a million years.

"Kish! Kisshu! Wake up, it's me." Someone whispered into the Cyniclon's ear, disturbing his sleep.

"What is it? We better be under attack or you're dead."

"Not quite." Was the same hushed answer.

"Then why are you waking me up?!" He snapped, rolling over to try to ignore the voice's answer, assuming it was another scared wuss that wanted to talk out his last dying moments with the only calm person here. What was even the point of telling a person your last dying wish if that same person was supposedly going to die with you? That sentence was slightly self-contradictory, but all the same. Kisshu was so concentrated on thinking that he didn't hear the voice's answer.

"Well, I wanted to tell you that I managed to run away. Again. And that you're not going to get rid of me so easily." Kisshu flew up and came face to face with Ichigo, whom he had sincerely hoped had learned her lesson. Apparently, she had not.

"What-! You-! Why-! How-!" Was all Kisshu could manage before the girl lazily got up from her siting position next to Kisshu's futon. She, with the same laziness, walked out of the tent. But she threw over a nonchalant statement over her shoulder as she zig zaged over to the flap in the tent.

"Well, that's all I wanted to say for now. See you in the morning." As she had expected, Kisshu had teleportated closer to her and yanked her arm, throwing her on the bed. Since the former Mew had thought this would happen, she knew exactly what to do. Give Kisshu a headbutt, then run like hell out the tent, and hide in the bushes. Surprisingly, she managed to do so, in that order. That is, until she heard one of the men further in the campsite scream. It was the bloodcurdling scream that the girl had imagined and remembered countless times. The kind of sound that comes out of a person's mouth only when they are going/are dying. Bones broke, another scream sounded, but was cut off by another crunch of a neck being snapped off the body. A different voice screamed straight after, the same thing happened. Two people were dead.

It was that thought that had Ichigo jumping from the bushes and running towards the noise, falling into step with Kish.

"This is a surprise. You're rushing over to help them, forgetting about me. Guess you're not so in love with me after all." She breathed in between rasps of breath. Kish was fine. He had kept his body in check, while Ichigo had let it rust.

"Don't be ridiculous! Of course I love you!"

"Really? Then why did you not even call out my name?" People had started yelling, trying to warn others about the attack.

"You must be deaf. I screamed it over at least 50 times."

"Didn't hear it." They picked up the pace as the screams continued.

"I'm not surprised. My voice always pales to your ears when something else is going on."

"Stop sulking. It makes you seem childish. Do you want BoP to mock you before we even fight him?"

"What? Bop? What's that?"

"B.O.P. It stands for Beast of Predators. Makes him seem less scary. Don't 'cha think?" She glanced over to the Cyniclon, who was utterly confused.

"Who's the mentally insane one here again?"

"Hey, I have an excuse. I'm not from around here, so therefor don't know jack. You, on the other hand, should be diagnosed with Crazy Syndrome."

"Crazy Syndrome? What's that?" The two had to yell more now to be heard over the screams of the dying and scared.

"It doesn't exist, baka. I made it up. It means you're mentally insane, while I am just ignorant. And let me tell you, ignorance truly is bliss."

"Which is exactly why I wanted you to stay home! You don't need to see these things." Ichigo picked up speed and stood in front of the Cyniclon, causing him to stop in his tracks.

"Kisshu, you should remember that I've seen horrible things too. You've let me seen the people I loved and strangers be in terrible danger. Often times, you caused that danger. Don't be a hypocrite and let me help. I've had more experience in fighting the bad guy. You've just started out being a good guy. You can't even really manage it either way. You're too sadistic."

"Thank you for that heart warming speech. But really, go back."

"Too late. I can see BoP." It was true. The beast towered over the tents and wagons. Even the trees were at least three yards shorter. They neared the thing's paws. Kish looked lost, but Ichigo had already decided on something. If she couldn't think of any plan, she would just wing it. And wing it she did.

Ichigo the former Mew ran up to a black, fury mass of warm flesh and started climbing.

"She really is the insane one." Kisshu the Cyniclon muttered under his breath.

**AN: Ah geez, I'm such a procrastinator. I keep telling myself, "we are gonna write the fight scene this chapter!" But I never do! Next chapter most defiantly will have the fight scene! Definitely**

** Also, please excuse any mistakes that I have left unchecked.**

** The idea of the nickname "BoP" came from my good friend, Paranoid Fanatic. She said I could use the idea, but I still want to give credit. Thank you for letting me use it! (^o^)**

** And please review. They make me happy and give me boosts to continue writing. So if you want me to continue this story, review! You must! Otherwise I swear I'll just leave this hanging the way it is! Arigato for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8: Cat Fight

**AN: I do not own the mentioned movie, Terminator. Nor do I own Tokyo Mew Mew. That is all. Let's move on the much anticipated fight scene! This is the first time I've tried something like this, so sorry if it's horrible.**

-_- = Passage of Time.

"Wha!" Ichigo shrieked, slipping off of the slick fur. She glanced at what looked like the head of the monster she was so desperately climbing. It seemed that BoP was not paying her any attention as he ripped off another Cyniclon's head. Ichigo winced, but started up the climb again. _Why am I pulling this idiotic stunt anyway?_

"Ichigo! Are you all right?!" The girl looked down at the Cyniclon-who was thankfully still alive-that had called up to her. _Oh. Right. 'Cause I'm stupid and stubborn and somehow need this guy to survive. _Ichigo sighed, and mumbled something she wasn't even sure her temporary comrade-in-arms could hear. Apparently he couldn't, because he still had that worried look on his face.

The former Mew continued dragging her body up the leg. She managed to climb onto the back of BoP, and started clawing her way to the head. When she accomplished that feat, she stood up on shaky legs. She suddenly felt victorious when she should have remained cautious.

"Hey! You brain-dead murderer! Did you even notice that someone was climbing on you?!" She screamed into it's ear, successfully drawing the monster's attention from the body of it last victim. It's tail swished around in irritation, effectively knocking down several trees.

"I thought I would let you play hero for awhile longer." Yep, that dream definitely did happen, and was plenty real. The same voice that reminded Ichigo of static boomed from a mouth with large, pointed teeth. Ichigo noticed that on the bottom jaw there were three rows of teeth. _Similar to a shark's. Interesting._ "But now that you have had your fun, I will not tolerate your impertinence anymore."

Ichigo saw a swift movement out of the corner of her eye. The thing's tail was coming towards her. Fast. She lost her balance in her shock and fear, so slipped down over the monster's eye. She caught herself on one of it's eye whiskers. BoP hissed, a noise coming out of it's throat that sounded suspiciously like a cat's mew. The monster had apparently counted on hitting it's target, and when Ichigo slipped, it hit it's ear full force. Something clear was trickling down the sleek, black fur.

The smell of the liquid hit the former Mew's nose full force. It smelled like rust and salt, but something else. Yes, Ichigo's strangely sensitive sense of smell was bombarded with salt, rust, and sulfur. Not a good mix, might I add. That's when Ichigo realized that the water was actually the monster's blood.

"I seem to have underestimated you. You were able to dodge my attack and in the process have me injure myself. Very clever, but such things will not happen a second time!" Again, Ichigo saw the black fury whip come at her. On instinct, she screamed something that had come out of her mouth for nearly a year.

"MEW MEW STRAWBERRY, METAMORPHISIS!"

If there had been time, she would have laughed at her self. If she had had a reason to laugh at herself, she would have been killed. If the transformation didn't happen, she would have died laughing at herself. But there wasn't time, and she didn't have a reason to laugh at herself because the transformation worked. Shocked, but with adrenaline running through her, she glanced around for her Strawberry Bell. Another surprise greeted her as she found the heart-shaped ring glowing beside her, the bell not heard through all the screaming. She gripped it, feeling it's familiar weight against her palm. The metal ring stopped glowing, reminding Ichigo that she still had to save her life. She threw the seemingly harmless weapon in front of her, clenching her hands around it's cold metal.

Impact made her arms bend back, the Strawberry Bell pushed back into her chest. Then she was flying. After what seemed like a minute, but was really only a second, her head rammed against something, her body following after that. She drifted in and out of consciousness for a while, but managed to clear her vision and sit up.

"Ichigo!" Someone called her name and she felt hands gently touch her shoulders.

"I'm alright Kish. But why do I see red stuff?"

"Ichigo, that's your blood! Your head sustained an injury! That's why I told you to stay home!" The former Mew stood up, and staggered to where she hoped the monster that threw her off was. Not away from it's direction like a coward. Dang it, she really couldn't see where she was going. "Ichigo!"

"It doesn't matter, Kisshu. I'm fine. Head injuries bleed a lot." She wiped at the blood around her eyes. She wasn't feeling anemic yet, but that might just have been the adrenaline. Yay, she was headed in the right direction.

"Ichigo!" The Cyniclon screamed again.

"I said never mind, Kisshu! Besides, I've got an idea on how to end this thing." She grinned at the confused soldier next to her. "You in, or what?"

"I told you to go home!"

"I can always just go and try getting thrown off again." She nonchalantly replied, faking deep thought.

"Ichigo!"

"Maybe I'll break a few bones this time." Kish fell silent, but gripped Ichigo's arm. "Of course, this all depends on whether you're in on my plan. So, take it or leave it." The teenage boy started rambling incoherent sentences before finally coming to a decision.

"Fine. But this is the only chance I'm giving you. If you fail-"

"If we fail, we'll be dead. No questions asked. No one here will get a third chance." The girl looked down at a corpse in front of her. Or rather, the corpse's head. The body must have been laying around somewhere. "Some people didn't even get one chance to fight." She mumbled under her breath.

"Strawberry..." Ichigo turned to glare at her... friend?

"Seems like you've gone back to your perverted nicknames, Kish." She smiled, causing the boy to ease his grip on the girl's arm. Ichigo grabbed Kish's hand, and looked him in the eyes. She blushed, thinking more innocent things then him. "Don't get the wrong idea! I just need you to listen to me. I need you to let me borrow one of those swords you have."

"Swords?"

"Yes. Those twin things that you use as weapons. You still have them, don't you?"

"If you mean my Dragon Swords, then yes, I have them. But what are you going to use them for?"

"You'll see. Now, please give me one!" Ichigo pleaded, gripping Kisshu's hand.

"No! Tell me what you're planning, Koneko-chan!" Kish grabbed the former Mew's other hand, and squeezed it so hard that the girl winced. She glared at her... kinda-almost-a-friend.

"Fine! I want you to teleport me in front of BoP's eyes! Close enough that I can slash at the thing!" She stage whispered, checking to see if the monster was preoccupied. It was preoccupied. It was preoccupied with a rather terrified Cyniclon, no younger than Pai.

"Strawberry, that's madness! Do you realize that that's suicide?!"

"Yep, but it's our best shot."

"People have tried in vain for two years to kill that thing! And you're going to aim for it's eyes?!"

"Exactly! People haven't been able to **kill** it. I'm not trying to kill it. I'm trying to **blind** it. Hopefully permanently. It'll make BoP easier to kill when we're better prepared. So, are you in, or out? Please decide quickly so we can save the remaining people."

"Ummm..."

"Hurry up, because I think the manticore is ready to try to kill us." Kish turned to realize that the object of his one-sided crush was right. BoP had turned towards Ichigo, and was advancing on steps that seemed to be the cause of earthquakes. Kish thought for around a second before deciding to follow Ichigo's example. He was going to wing it.

"Fine." Ichigo let go of the Cyniclon's hand as the air next to him shimmered. Two twin swords appeared, and Kish grabbed them, handing Ichigo one. "Do you have any idea how to use this?"

"None. Except that I swing and try to snag the target deep enough to permanently blind them. At least that's how it is in this situation." Kisshu gaped for a few moments before recovering and giving one of his trademark smirks.

"You and your situations."

"Hey, two years ago, you were the one that caused the situations I was in."

"Touche."

"What are you children bickering about? You should know that friends don't argue." BoP had spoken up, and what he said sounded grandfatherly, which only made it more creepy. Like a little kid saying she was going to kill you. Horror movies. We can blame them for Ichigo's weird mind.

"We're not arguing." Kish replied, grabbing hold of Ichigo's waist. "We're having a friendly debate on how we should kill you." The Cyniclon's form started to vanish, along with Ichigo's.

"Ha! And how do you plan on doing that, children?" Even it's laugh was static. The human and Cyniclon pair appeared in front of the monster's eyes.

"By making a handicap." Ichigo muttered as she swung the blade deep into BoP's open left eye. She was successful in creating a deep wound, the fluids on the weapon reached all the way to the hilt. "Kish! The other one!" She raised her voice over the monster's yowl. Thankfully, Kish, who hadn't heard her words, understood the rest of the plan and teleportated to the other side. Ichigo gave the same wound, and the pair flew a good distance away to watch as BoP began to retreat.

"Just you wait. I'll be back." The last sentence spoken by BoP made Ichigo blink in surprise. When the monster vanished from view, Ichigo slid down to the ground, her shoulders shaking.

"Koneko-chan?! Are you alright?! It's fine now, it's gone! Strawberry?" Kish reached out a hand, afraid of what he might see.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... HAH." Kish was so shocked by Ichigo's sudden outburst, he jumped a few feet away. "Heehee. Sorry... heh, that was just... ha... so cliché... hmph, I couldn't help it... haha, I just had to laugh."

"Cliche? Huh?"

"Oh... right... you wouldn't get it. See, there's this old movie, and the villain always says, 'I'll be back' in this really thick accent. I think it's called the Terminator... maybe not that old I suppose... oh well, the line became so cliché that no one uses it anymore. At least not on Earth. It's funny, no?" The girl burst out into another fit of laughter, and Kish-who was more than slightly relived that Ichigo had not gone off crying again-joined her.

When the former Mew's mirth finally faded, Kish found himself wrapping his arms around her.

"So glad your safe." He mumbled into the girl's sweet, strawberry smelling hair.

"Me too Kish." Ichigo whispered back. The Cyniclon sat back to study her face, those three words running around in his head. "Don't get the wrong idea! I just..." she trailed off, not sure if what she was thinking should be said or not, "I just think... maybe I can see us being friends. It's too tiring being your enemy, and it's not like I can just walk up to a person and start a conversation. 'Hi, I'm human and I kept your people from destroying Earth.' Like that's gonna go well. So, I think we can be friends. Just friends, and no more attacks! Seriously... can you let go of me now?" She had rambled, not noticing that Kisshu's skin color was growing paler, if that was even possible.

"I... see... just... friends... I suppose... it's better... than nothing..." He collapsed, and Ichigo caught his head in her hands on reflex.

"Kisshu? Are you alright?! Kisshu!" _Oh my God, I must of jinxed us when I talked about the fight with Deep Blue!_

"Don't worry." Ichigo looked up at a male Cyniclon, a little younger than Pai, who had spoken. Ichigo assumed he was one of the lucky few that she and Kish had managed to save. Either that or one of the people that had run away to save themselves. "He's just sleeping. It's exhausting to teleport yourself and another as many times as he did. Even one time of doing so is tiresome. He's strong, so he'll be fine." The man left to help scavenge what was left of the supplies. Ichigo took off a jacket she had been wearing, bunched it up, and gently put Kisshu's head on top of the blood-caked fabric. The former Mew then got up to help the others repair the damages.

Kisshu woke up when he fell off of a bench. It hurt, but he forgot about the pain shooting up his backside when the strawberry smell drifted into his nose, and he saw a very cute girl come into his perpendicular vision.

"Kisshu! Are you alright?" The Cyniclon, who wanted more attention, faked losing consciousness. "Kisshu! Kisshu!? I'm sorry, I should have made sure you wouldn't fall off! I'm sorry, Kisshu, please wake up." _How the heck can she be so cute?_ He wrapped his arm around her neck as Ichigo leaned over him, fussing and begging in that cute voice of hers for him to wake up.

"I'm alright, Strawberry. My back does hurt though." He lifted his upper body and kissed the girl on the cheek. Ichigo blushed, and tried to put some distance between them.

"Baka, faking being hurt and scaring me! Sadist! I can't believe I was worried about you! Fine! Go and visit Deep Blue, I'm sure you guys will get along splendidly." She struggled to stand up, but Kish's arm resting on her neck stopped the girl from doing so. "Kisshu!"

"Is 'go and visit Deep Blue' another one of your quirky ways of saying you like me?"

"No! It means go to... the place bad dead people go." Kisshu chuckled, enjoying the tease.

"You can't even swear? Guess you're not that mad at me then."

"Don't be stupid! It's just my principle not to swear."

"What, are you going to say, 'swearing's bad?' Ha! Heehee..." Ichigo nearly screamed in frustration. Instead, she took to squeaking his name again. "I mean, how can you be so childish? So cute?" He breathed into her hair, hugging her close. He lifted his other arm and wrapped it around her waist.

"Huh?" The former Mew croaked, her legs going numb. It was like her strength was sapped out of her whenever Kisshu would do these things.

"I said you're cute, Koneko-chan. You're so cute, I really can't go without touching you. Before I know it, I'm kissing you, I'm hugging you. I love you, Strawberry. I love you, but you'll never believe me."

"Kisshu, let go of me already. Friends don't do these sort of things, remember?" The Cyniclon held her tighter in response.

"What if I told you that Cyniclon friends touch each other like this all the time?"

"Then that would make you guys Italian, so you're lying. Besides, I've never seen you do these sorts of things with Pai and Taruto."

"That's 'cause we're all guys. A male and female pair of friends touch each other like this all the time." Ichigo contemplated it.

"I guess it's fine, if it's true. Since I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt..." _Not a very wise thing to do, Strawberry._ "and since it's supposedly a part of your culture, I'll let you do things like this." Kisshu smirked, and pressed his lips to hers. Ichigo started trembling almost as soon as Kish kissed her. She pushed back on the Cyniclon's chest, gasping for air. _She even forgot how to breathe. Kami, she's really going to be the death of me._

"But you can't-" She began through her small puffs of breath, but Kisshu pressed his lips to hers a second time. Then a third time. Fourth. Sixth. Ichigo lost count of how many times, and how long Kisshu kissed her, then pulled away, only to kiss her again. He kept on breathing her name, sounding desperate. Finally he stopped, letting the trembling girl in his arms catch her breath.

"I really don't want to hear things like that, Strawberry. I'll do that kind of thing whenever you try to say those things." He looked down at her, and gently leaned her on the side of the wagon. He jumped out to talk to the survivors.

Only 16 out of the 90 people had managed to survive. Caelestinus would not be happy.

**AN: Thank you all for reviewing! I've reached 60 reviews, and I've had four new people review as of the last time I checked. Let's welcome NekoKitty13, Sassy618, NightFlowerLuv, and Mewmewcritic to the happy following! Sorry guys if you didn't want to be mentioned. ^^" And as I've said before, I'll give a virtual cookie to everyone that reviews, favorites, or follows when the story's done. **

** I'm sorry Mewmewcritic, but I can't make Ichigo confess yet. It irritates me when someone don't take Kish/Ichigo love slowly, and I don't want to be a hypocrite. So, I hope you were satisfied with the fluff in this chapter. Don't worry, you will get your confession soon.**

** For those of you who don't know, the definition of a manticore is a large cat like creature with a man's face, a voice like a trumpet, (no idea where that simile came from, read it in a book somewhere,) three rows of teeth, and spikes on it's tail. It's from Roman and Greek myths. Anyone read the Percy Jackson series? Yeah, a manticore shows up in the... third book I think.**

** The name Caelestinus is Roman and is derived from another name that means "heavenly." I couldn't find a male Japanese name that would fit, so I settled for this one. Hope none of you mind.**

** Review, and you'll get a virtual cookie. I love newbies to the story! Come on people.**


	9. Chapter 9: Invitation

**Quick AN: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. **

"Hey, Old Hag." A Cyniclon boy walked into a room that was currently occupied by an older Cyniclon and a human girl. The older male had his arms around the human, who seemed to have been in the middle of protesting. Kisshu sighed, reluctantly released Ichigo, walked over to Taruto, and leaned down to be at eye level with the tactless child.

"What is it that you want with my Koneko-chan, Taru? It better not be something pervy~" The simultaneous answer of the girl and child grated on Kisshu's ears.

"I'm not yours, and you're the one that's a pervert!" That was Ichigo's answer from the couch.

"Of course not! I'm not a pervert like you are!" The answer the child gave had a continuation that Ichigo's did not. "The human got a letter, is all. I have no idea how anyone would know she's here, though." Kish drew back to his full height, his smirk still firmly in place.

"Alright, let's see this mystery letter, shall we?" The older Cyniclon drawled.

"Hey! I can read my own letters, you perverted alien!" Ichigo snapped and made a dash for the envelope when Taru brought it out and handed the parchment to Kisshu. Kish merely avoided the former Mew's straining efforts to have the letter in her possession.

"Do you think you know how to read our language?" Ichigo froze up, causing Kisshu to smirk and lean down to whisper in her ear, "I think not, so let me read it out loud to you." Ichigo shivered and jumped away from him. She was determined to not provoke him in any way.

"Fine. Go ahead. Read it." Kisshu smoothly opened the letter and read it's contents, his look of surprise growing more severe by the sentence.

"_The Emperor extends an invitation to the human Ichigo Momomiya, and the soldiers under his rule, Kisshu, Taruto, and Pai Ikisatashi to visit his palace. This is an order from the ruler of the Cyniclons, and shall not be disobeyed. The Emperor expects the invitees to be at the palace gates in three days and three nights. Signed, Emperor Caelestinus._" The room was quiet, until Ichigo decided to break the ice.

"Well, that doesn't leave any room for discussion, does it? Even gave us a deadline, the tyrant." Ichigo had only meant it as a joke, but the two Cyniclons remained silent, with severe expressions. "Is he a tyrant?" The girl asked tentatively.

"Not in the direct definition, but yes, he is somewhat of a tyrant." Kisshu was the one to bother to get out of his revere and answer.

"How so?" Ichigo asked, getting curious. The Cyniclon looked at Ichigo, then back to his little brother.

"Taruto, you go tell Pai the news for me, will you? I'll explain things to Ichigo." Taruto nodded, then walked away without complaint, being rather distracted. When the child had gone out of hearing range, Kisshu turned to Ichigo. He grabbed the girl by the waist and kissed her. Ichigo soon felt as if she was about to collapse from the added shock of both the kiss and the suddenness of the attack. "And that's just advance payment, Koneko-chan. Remember our deal? A kiss for an answer. Given the severity of the answer, I'll need more than just one payment."

**AN: Sorry it's so short. I've been having writers block. Plus, the number of people reading the story has been steadily going down, so that's been a blow to my self esteem. But I have a cure for that, reviews. They boost my creativity so give me lots of 'em and you'll get lots in return. Mostly fluff and fun situations, but let's see what happens, shall we?**

** Review to give me happiness and juice for writing.**

**AN: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. **

** But thank you so, so, so much everyone! On the Sunday after last Sunday, the number of people who had seen my story was only 81, but last Sunday it was 113. (Confusing I know, but that was the simplified version.) And I got a whole lot of reviews! Thank you! I really can't stress how happy and grateful all of you readers and reviewers made me. Now, on with the story. By the way, this is where a new chapter begins. **

-_- = Passage of Time.

"Koneko-chan, this is politics. Can you understand politics Strawberry?" Kisshu asked as if he was talking to a little child. Which, in his eyes, he was. Ichigo was still the cute little kitty cat that the Cyniclon had to protect in his insane, yandere way. That's where he was mentally ill. He had weird fantasies and delusions. Oh, wait, that's just your run-of-the-mill perverted boy. Kisshu is just one of the more crazy ones.

"I can understand those things, Kisshu. No matter how 'complicated' they are." Ichigo glared at Kish, still being held by the waist. "Explain." The Cyniclon grabbed the girl's chin in his hands, purely for the reason of wanting to tease her. He pecked her cheek as he released his grip on her. He sat down on the couch, gesturing for Ichigo to do the same. When the human girl did so, he started the politics lecture.

"Very well. First, you should know that our government is a monarchy. We have a royal family. An Emperor, a Crown Prince, a Queen. The whole deal, and they hold all the power. No parliament, no house of senators... nothing else. For us, the royal family is everything." Kish paused, thinking through the impossible scenario the royal family was in, but continued.

"Caelestinus is the cousin of the true Emperor. But, he recently started using the Emperor, the Queen, the Crown Prince, and all of the rest of the family as hostages. No one knows where they are, so not one person can try to rescue them. Caelestinus has taken the throne for himself. A pretty common scenario on Earth, as I found out in research. Either way, until the royal family takes control, Caelestinus is our Emperor."

"What's going on in the palace is unheard of. Not a single Cyniclon ever imagined that this could ever happen. We haven't had a tyrant since the Hoshi dynasty, and that was nearly 600 years ago! So, no one knows what to do in these situations." Kisshu finished his lesson, and Ichigo remained silent for a while. After she thought, Ichigo blinked up at Kish.

"You Cyniclons are pretty useless, aren't you?"

"Wha-?!"

"I mean, think about it. First, the Cyniclons had problems with Earth. Back then maybe you all weren't so stupid because you left for another planet. But when your new home started having problems, you, Pai and Taruto tried to take over the planet your people abandoned. You also blamed the humans for all of the problems everyone here had to face-which is just sad. Then, when you were given with the problem of BoP, no one tried to change the plan. Sure, some arrangements were made, but they didn't solve the problem. There's also the deal with the tyrant. Not one of you 'intelligent' aliens have tried to save the royal family yourself. It's pathetic really." Kisshu returned the stare, then began laughing his head off. Clinging to the confused human, he clutched his stomach. The mirth finally faded from his eyes as he answered Ichigo's analysis.

"Yes, I suppose we aliens are rather useless." He let out one last string of chuckles. "I'll give you a couple of hours to pack." He started out of the room after releasing the even more confused former Mew.

"W-wait!" He turned, with his usual smirk. Of course, he knew what she was going to say. "Y-y-you aren't going t-t-to tell me I can't go?" Yep, so dang predictable. Kisshu's smirk grew, and he looked at her out of the corner of his eyes before he answered while turning towards the door.

"I learned my lesson." He stepped out of the room and grabbed the door handle. Winking, he gave the warning as he closed the door. "But don't think for a second that I'm not gonna milk my payback." Ichigo was too stunned to answer, and by the time her mouth was working, Kish had already went out of the house.

"Let's get going already!" Taruto yelled from the back. This time the vehicle resembled a regular car, except it flew around instead of on wheels. The Cyniclon version of a hovercraft. Kish was driving, Ichigo was in shotgun, while Pai and Taruto were in the back.

"Alright! Enough with the backseat driving, squirt." Kisshu looked at the child Cyniclon through an odd shaped hologram that reflected things behind the driver, Ichigo guessed that it was a rear-view mirror.

"Don't call me a squirt!" Taru immediately replied.

"I'll call you whatever I want. Now be quiet and enjoy the ride." Kish calmly shot back.

"Do you even have a license?" Ichigo inquired, worried about turning into a pretzel when they hadn't even gotten out of the driveway.

"Strawberry, this thing's on auto-pilot. I just like the view from this seat." When the so-called-driver turned the keys, all the human could do was stare as she learned what he meant. The steering wheel was moving by itself. It was creepy, like one of those pianos that play by themselves. Almost makes you think there's a ghost.

"Okay. That's... high tech." Ichigo finally managed to push out a couple of words from her unresponsive mouth, no matter how much of a fail they were. Kisshu and Taru rolled their eyes while Pai blinked in the human's general direction. They had some tact though, didn't say anything.

After a couple hours of silent travel, Kish couldn't stand it anymore. So, of course, to get rid of his utter boredom, he decided to tease Ichigo. When will that boy learn?

"Enjoying the front seat?"

"Yeah." Ichigo was **not** going to let him have his fun. A lapse of awkward silence followed, but the Cyniclon decided to try again.

"It's better than our last trip, huh?"

"Yes, I do say it is." Kish couldn't help but smile at the prim and proper act. Neither could Ichigo. The two suddenly started up fits of laughter, holding on to each other for support. Their loud mirth woke up Taruto, who hence complained and sulked all the rest of the trip. That sure put a damper on the friendship mood. Cause and effect, Kisshu. Cause and effect.

**AN: Okay, better than last update, but not enough for me. I know it's certainly not _nearly_ enough for you. Sorry guys. But I think I'm getting out of this slump little by little. Again, thanks for all the reviews and all the people that read my story! Do it again, and I promise to give you a 7 page chapter when I recover. (The record so far is only 5 pages.) **

**REVIEW! YOU'LL GET A HU~GE CHAPTER WHEN I FINALY MANAGE TO GET OUT OF THIS WRITERS BLOCK!**


	10. Chapter 10: How to Destroy Caelestinus

**AN: I was thinking back, and I don't remember Kish ever calling Ichigo Strawberry. Most of this fanfiction is based off of the english dubbed (I know, horrible. But I never finished the subs. Plus I watched the anime when I was in my stubborn "I-don't-want-to-read-subs" phase.) and the manga. I also base some things on what fanfictions I've read. They help to balance out the characters and to make sure that I don't have any OOC scenes. If I'm right and I picked up the nickname from a fanfiction, I'm extremely sorry to that author. I'm still going to use the nickname because it would seem weird if Kish suddenly stopped using it. I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew.**

)))))))) = Flashback

"His throwing a tantrum. How old is this guy again?!" Ichigo turned to Kish, who smiled as a bead of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"He's supposed to be 21."

"21?! And he still acts like... like **this**?!" Ichigo stomped to a random door in the hall and banged on it with all her might. "With the way we're being treated you'd think he was 10!"

"Koneko-chan..." _How'd we end up in this situation again?! Oh, right. That happened._ Ichigo thought back to the past five hours.

))))))))

The group had arrived at the Royal Palace a couple of hours before the appointed time. After a lot of run throughs and showing of papers, they were finally granted entry to the actual building. Ichigo thought that that would be it, but she was proven wrong when they were told that the "Emperor" was upset that the people that he had so graciously invited to see him in person had turned up late. Indeed, they had ended up coming to the butler of the palace five hours after they had arrived at the first gate. That means that, to the Emperor, the three Cyniclons and one human were two hours late. The butler explained that the four of them had to wait until the next day to see the bratty Emperor.

))))))))

"Makes me so mad!" The human kicked the door after she was finished ranting and trying to punch a hole in the wall. "Ow! I stubbed my toes..." Ichigo held her foot glaring at the offending door.

"And that is why humans will always be foolish creatures." Pai spoke up, not even looking up from his book. Of course, the emotionless male didn't even blink when he was told of the tantrum, and instead took a book out of his luggage, sat down cross legged on the floor, and turned to the first page. He hadn't moved from that spot in the last 30 minutes that the group was left stranded.

"What'd you say?" Fire burned behind Ichigo, her teeth becoming sharp as she glared at the emotionless zombie.

"You take out your unproductive anger on an inanimate object, then hurt yourself in the process." Pai turned a page, not even glancing up at the former-...newly revived Mew. A couple more veins tensed on her forehead, then a few more, they kept on adding up until six red anger marks pulsed around her.

Just when Ichigo was about to snap, one of the doors opened, the butler of the palace stepping out into view.

The butler wore similar garb as those of human butlers, but with some differences. The tail coat didn't have a tail, instead it bunched up at the old man's hips, causing it to look outrageously pompous. There was a weird collar too. The kind that mid-evil queens would wear. It rose above the elderly man's head, and looked like a heart with the way it dipped down in the center. Every piece of clothing was a deep shade of red that had it resembling a heart even more. The man himself was, as I stated before, an elderly man. Despite his over-extravagant attire, the old man had a poker-face that could rival Pai's.

"The Emperor has had a change of heart, and would like to greet you in the throne room." The old man looked the group over again with a obvious look of distaste. Utter disgust was directed at Ichigo though. "Follow me." He turned and stalked off back through the door, the group in tow.

"So not only is the guy immature and spoiled, he also is an eccentric. I'm getting curious to meet this 'Emperor.'" Ichigo muttered through her teeth clenched in a false smile. She was preparing to be polite.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Koneko-chan." Kish got in one last tease in the corridor. He quickly plastered on his own smile, except that his looked more natural than the Mew's.

"Shut up, yandere stalker." Ichigo punched the chuckling Cyniclon in the side.

"Ite... that hurt, that hurt." He chuckled again, unfazed by the impact. "But seriously, be careful. He's still holding the other royals hostage, and no one wants to set him off. If we could just get them free, than maybe the true Emperor will be able to put a solution to the problems at hand. Then there wouldn't be a chance of being ordered to protect the food savings again."

"What?!" Ichigo raised her voice, but from a sharp glare of the butler, she lowered her head and spoke softly again. "Why would they make you do something so dangerous again?!"

"There hasn't been a successful food saving storage since the Beast of Predators freest started attacking. They don't recognize successful you defeated the monster, so they've placed all the so-called glory onto me. As a result, Caelestinus has an excuse to try to get rid of me again. The guy never liked me, thought I was too rebellious."

"Wait, 'again?' What do you mean by again?" Kisshu stopped in his tracks and turned to Ichigo. The butler snapped at them to hurry up, which they did so, but still continued their conversation.

"Caelestinus is the man with the most power right now. He's the one that decides on the people who are involved in the storage of the food savings. He must have somehow found out about you and used the chance to try to get rid of me. He may be an immature, spoiled eccentric, but he's not stupid. He knows that the only reason I survived is because of you. I hate to face facts, but you caught his interest." Ichigo thought for a moment, then sped up.

"This dictator of yours sure is hard to figure out." Ichigo mumbled, not really sure if she should have high or low expectations of the ruler.

"Yeah, I hate him, but who knew we'd have the same tastes in women?"

"Oh, and what type of woman am I?"

"The kind that always surprises you. The kind that just invites you to tease. The kind that so adorable that you can't help but fall dangerously in love with. That, is the kind of woman you are Strawberry."

"I don't know if you're insulting or complimenting me." A large bead of sweat dropped down Ichigo's forehead just as the group was led to a gigantic set of doors.

As the mahogany doors opened with a long, drawn out creak, Ichigo looked up at the man sitting on a large throne. A thought came into her head. She needed to get the royal family free. If she didn't manage to do so, than she would have to go through that whole hellish ordeal again, and might not come out of it alive. Her fake smile was replaced with a smirk that mirrored Kisshu's perfectly.

_Showtime._

**AN: Well, I didn't do much better than last time, now did I? Oh, geez. Sorry. But you will get a 7 page chapter one of these days. Bare with me guys, bare with me. (I don't know if it's "bear" or "bare," but I hope you get my meaning.) See you next week and REVIEW! This is where a new chapter begins.**

The room was obviously a throne room. It was large, with a domed ceiling. Riches of all sorts were etched into the very walls, and it was relatively empty. The only noticeable things inside were a long purple carpet which led to a large throne. The throne was, of course, gold, with satin cushions and all the other things that a throne ought to be made of. Any other object was a very specific shade of purple.

The person sitting on the throne looked to be in a bad mood. His cheeks were puffed up and he had a large scowl. The eccentric was obviously sulking. Ichigo had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from stalking over there and hitting the tyrant upside the head. The dictator had silver hair, and clear, sky blue eyes. If he was to stand up to his full height, he would probably be rather tall. Like Kisshu, he had a slim build, and was rather pale. _What's with all Cyniclons being a Bishounen!?_

"So you finally get here. Do you realize how long I've been waiting?! Arriving at the palace two hours late was bad enough, but then you waited half an hour to get to the throne room. I should just throw all of you commoners into the dungeons and be done with it." Caelestinus slid his eyes sideways to look at them as he talked, giving him a cat like appearance.

"Dungeons?! You have those?!" Ichigo couldn't help thinking what a strange combination of old traditions and highly advanced technology the Cyniclons had, and she always spoke her thoughts out loud. Caelestinus faced her full on then, scorn written all over his face.

"Of course the palace will have dungeons. Isn't that considered normal for your kind?" He stood up, slowly descending the shallow steps in front of the throne. _Yep, knew it, he's... what, 6' 3"?_

"Sure, in the 1300's maybe. But not in the present day. The only dungeons I've ever heard of are tourists attractions, let alone ones I've seen." Ichigo looked straight at him, forgetting that he was perfectly willing to let her be a part of a reenactment of said dungeons in the 1300's.

"Hmm..." The Emperor was in front of Ichigo. He leaned down and studied her from head to toe. "You're interesting. Exotic. I've decided, I want you to be my concubine." 'Caelestinus had such a happy and confident expression, Ichigo couldn't refuse him.' Yeah, like that'll ever happen. Ichigo didn't even bother answering, all she did was stare at him with disgust and horror. A silence passed, along with a cold wind. The tyrant's face froze in place, his confidence a very thin ice that just barely hid his unease.

"Huh? What? Where have I seen this sort of thing before?!" Ichigo thought for a long time. As each second went away, sweat dripped down the males in the room at an incredibly fast pace. "Oh Kami. It's nearly the same pattern as when I first met Kish! Except he was more pushy and mean. Which, come to think of it, you stole my first kiss!" Ichigo turned to Kisshu and grabbed the front of his shirt.

"Why are you still hung up on that? It was three years ago, Koneko-chan."

"It was my first kiss!"

"You're being unreasonable. Besides, we've kissed plenty more times, right?" Kisshu closed his eyes in exasperation, then wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear. "Both on your planet and mine. Right, Koneko-chan?" The teenage Cyniclon bit the girl's ear, which made her blush a brighter shade of red than her hair.

"St-stop it, Ki-" Ichigo weakly thumped on Kish's chest, her knees already going weak as Kisshu's breath traveled down her neck as he sighed. "P-people are lo-looking..."

"But like this, we can show his Highness that you already belong to someone. He'll give up." Kisshu whispered in her ears again, sending another shiver through her.

Suddenly, Kisshu's support wasn't there anymore, and Ichigo collapsed to the ground.

"How dare you commit such vulgar acts in front of me?! And no less to a women I set my eyes on! I should execute you. Right here, right now!" Ichigo looked up to see Caelestinus who had spoken, pointing a sword at Kisshu. She was about to force her limbs to move forward, but Kisshu spoke up, completely at ease.

"But she didn't answer yet, your Highness. Like she said, I made move on her before you. And before me was Romeo." Kisshu grew serious as he said the last couple of sentences. "That all started three years ago. If you think I'll let you have her now, you've got to be joking. Even if the day comes where Ichigo will agree to your so called proposal, it'll be on 100 times more than I had to wait."

Ichigo would have jumped in somewhere in Kish's speech, but she was too exhausted to even speak up.

"Tch." Caelestinus reluctantly let Kisshu go, then turned around and dismissed them. He then left, the butler following closely behind. The butler had left a maid to guide them to the rooms they would be staying in.

Kisshu walked up to the still trembling human girl. He knelt down, and grabbed her chin. The Mew glared, but let him study her to make sure she wasn't hurt. He then promptly lifted her off of the ground and carried her.

After a couple more minutes, Ichigo started being able to protest. After a five more minutes the human started to insist that Kish put her down. Guess what, Kish didn't let her go even when the maid showed them to their room. Ichigo was by then so busy struggling, she didn't notice that she was sent into the same room as Kisshu, neither did she notice the Cyniclon lock the door. Either the yandere had a habit of liking to confine her, or he had the peculiar hobby of locking doors. She didn't realize everything until she was placed in the only bed in the entire suite. Scratch that: She didn't realize anything until she was on the only bed with Kisshu kissing her neck.

"Wait, what? What's going on?" A bead of sweat appeared on Ichigo's forehead as she unsuccessfully tried to avoid the situation. Kisshu gave her several hickeys before remarking on the girl's questions.

"Slow little kitty, aren't you?" Kisshu looked up at her when she gasped. She had come up with a better idea.

"I have a plan for something. Want to hear it? If you continue any further I'll try it all alone, most likely get caught and killed." Kisshu zipped up so their faces were in front of each other. Ichigo smiled a very false happy smile. "Your choices are as follows: Indulge now, get me killed, then regret your decision for the rest of your life. Second, don't do what ever you were planning, listen, agree with me-you **will** agree with me- help me, and then everything turns out all right."

"..." Ichigo's eyes shadowed over with Kisshu's silence. With her smile still in place, she looked creepy and out of character as she asked him the question he had been dreading.

"So, which choice do you choose?"

**AN: I was so freaking tempted to write a mature scene in the bedroom, but then decided to keep it relatively appropriate. I **_**am**_** still a considered a kid myself, you know.**

** Again, not even a normal chapter. I got more into it this time, but this is all that turned out. Sorry. But on the bright side, I think I'm almost completely out of my writer's block. I've tried a couple different ideas to get rid of it, and I think they're working. Let's hope I did ****not**** just jinx myself.**

** REVIEW TO GIVE ME ENERGY! YOU'LL MAYBE GET A SUPER LONG CHAPTER, AND WHEN THE STORY'S DONE, A VIRTUAL COOKIE. Guess what? Another chapter starts here!**

**AN: Thank you faithful reader and reviewer kisshuismylife for giving me permission to use your idea on how to save the royal family. You said I could use it, and I chose to do so, but it's only fair to give credit. The idea of plan "pretend-then-backfire" is entirely kisshuismylife's idea. All credit goes to them. I'm using it 'cause it's: 1. A really good idea. 2. I want the story to progress, and this way I don't see any problems in the future of the story. 3. Because it's a good idea. That is all.**

"..." After Ichigo had introduced her idea to Kisshu, the first thought that went through his head was the he sure knew how to pick 'em. This girl was insane and he should lock her up more often. And not just for preservation, but also for her own safety. He stared at her with a mixture of horror and shock. The two were sitting upright on the bed, facing each other.

"..." Ichigo glared determinedly at the Cyniclon in front of her. The silence was unbearable and she was praying that he wouldn't just ignore her idea. What's said is said, and she really didn't want to basically commit suicide. At least not by herself. If she was going down, she was either bringing Caelestinus or Kisshu down with her.

"My first instinct is to say no, Koneko-chan. Also, I really do want to continue with, as you put it- my 'attack.' It's got to be the most fun thing to do." Ichigo blushed and was about to go off, but Kish held up a hand to stop her. "However, I realize that right now that could lead to unfortunate circumstances. So, I will go along with you're plan, on one condition."

"Sure! What ever the price is, I'll pay it!" Ichigo was too happy at how easy it was that she didn't understand that she had fallen into a trap. Kisshu's eyes shadowed over and he grinned. "So, what is that you want me to do?" Ichigo smiled, but it froze when the Cyniclon stroked her cheek.

"It's simple really. You can't spend the night with him. Use whatever excuses you can to get out of it. But that's not the actual condition. I know that you'd not want to spend the night with him anyway. It's your instinct."

"Of course! Why the he-" Ichigo was cut off when Kisshu kissed her. Ichigo slumped a little, her muscles relaxing, not heeding her brain's orders. Kish grabbed the back of her head, forcing her to lean forward. After he separated himself from her, he smirked and took her face in both hands.

"What I want you to do, Strawberry, is to ignore that instinct of yours and come and spend the night with me instead."

"Wha-!?"

"Shush, Koneko-chan. I won't go too far with you. Just the things we've done as of late."

"JUST?!"

"Yes, I could do a lot more, and you know it." He glared, and the human had to hold in a squeak of fright. Still holding her cheeks, he rose up on his knees and shuffled closer. When he was a mere inch away, Ichigo looked down, only to have her face forced up to give Kisshu a clear view of her expression. He hovered over her for a moment, then he leaned down and kissed her again. It was soft and quick, and Ichigo felt a wave of disappointment wash over her. She quickly shoved it back when she came to her senses. "I want to try something, Strawberry."

"What?" So gazed at him curiously, inside hoping that he wouldn't try anything perverted. As soon as she had made that wish, Kisshu grabbed her right hand and pulled her up off the bed. He gracefully floated down, intertwining her captured fingers with his. With his other hand, he led Ichigo's left to his shoulder. When he had made sure that the girl would not remove her hand, he grabbed her waist.

"I'm not sure if I'm the best at dancing though." He led her into a series of steps, and he didn't stumble once. Nor did he stop looking the Mew in the eyes.

"You're right. You're not good at this."

"Come, now you're just being stubborn. I've worked hard to keep from getting rusty."

"Huh?" Kisshu sighed, seemingly exasperated with her cute antics.

"Pretty much right after I met you I tried to learn all kinds of things about your world." Ichigo blushed at his confession. It seemed to say a whole lot more than what the words literally meant.

"And you learned the tango." She stated with a grin.

"I'm good, no?" He smiled, and the girl had to admit that he at least looked handsome. "Plus..." Ichigo looked up inquisitively, wondering at his tone of voice. "I heard that this was the dance of love. Am I wrong?" The human blushed-she thought she'd faint from the amount of time she had spent blushing that day-and glared back at their feet.

"We're friends."

"Do friends normally kiss?"

"But you said-!" Kish pulled her in a sudden turn, and she struggled to not trip over his feet.

"I've said a lot of things, Koneko-chan. You can be such a fool for believing them.

"What?!"

"An adorable, lovable, pathetic, strong fool." The Cyniclon finished his thoughts, ignoring Ichigo's attempts to pull away. "Adorable because of your actions and the things you say. Lovable because I can't think of one person in my world or yours, who can truly hate you-unless they're like Deep Blue."

"Stop it! Let go of me!" They had stopped dancing, and were merely standing in the middle of the vast chambers. Ichigo kept on trying to pull away, but Kisshu pressed her to him, gripping her hand so hard that tears started coming to her eyes.

"Pathetic for three reasons. One is that you will believe anything anyone will tell you. The second reason is that you'll come up with stupid plans like pretending to accept to becoming a concubine to free the royal family. The last reason is for situations like this."

"Please! Let go!" Kisshu let go of her waist and grabbed both of her hands. He smiled down at her, with sorrow etched onto his features.

"Strong because you have the type of personality that won't let you be saved by just any man. If it's anyone who's less than a lover, you'll do the saving." He released her. His fingers almost reached out to grab her again, but they clenched and drew back.

"Kisshu..."

"Your actions. Your darn popularity. Your openness, honesty, and ideas. The fact that you're a fighter. All of these are factors of you. All of these were factors to my utter and complete destruction."

"What are you talking about?!"

"So, Koneko-chan, do me a favor." Ichigo thought for a bit, but looked him in the eyes.

"Sure. What is it?" He smiled with that same despair.

"Make sure that you don't destroy me again." That was all he said, but it hurt Ichigo all the same. She wasn't sure why, but it hurt.

**AN: Seriously, I'm addicted to writing fluff. -_-" Oh well, more for you to enjoy, right? Sorry for the filler chapter. When I finally give you your 7 page chapter, I'm just going to combine most of these chapters into several long ones. So if the chapter number suddenly decreases, pay no mind to it. Another chapter.**

**AN: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. Again, the idea for Pretend-then-Backfire came from kisshuismylife. Thank you kisshuismylife, and everyone who reads my story. I love you guys!**

Day 1 of Plan Pretend-then-Backfire:

"Really?! You'll accept it?!" Caelestinus jumped up from his throne, looking almost like a kid with the happy and exited look directed at Ichigo.

"Yeah. I don't see anything else I can do." The human replied.

It had been easier than she had expected to get Kish to agree to her plan. But there was still that... _condition_. She didn't see as to what relevance it had. Maybe he was just being over-protective? Possessive? His usual strange and obsessed self? Still, she had given him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to avoid spending the night in the Emperor's chambers, instead she would stay with Kisshu. He had been right, she had not planned to spend any more time than necessary with Caelestinus. And she would probably just stay with Kisshu in those rooms since she had not been given any other place to sleep. So it didn't change her plans any. The only problem was-well, you know Kisshu. He would sooner kiss her in her sleep or something perverted like that than be a gentleman. Hah! Kisshu was the antonym of gentleman.

"Did you hear that, Kisshu Ikisatashi?" Caelestinus had walked down and slung his arm around Ichigo's shoulders. _Seriously, are all Cyniclon males perverts?!_ Ichigo looked over at Kisshu, who had started shaking in anger. She had told him to just act like he naturally would, but she was starting to worry that he'd take it too far. His eyes were shadowed over, and he was obviously angry.

Pai and Taruto were not around, having politely refused to come. They had also politely refused to take direct part in the plan. Well, Pai had simply flat out said "no," then returned to his book. Taruto had yelled at her to leave him alone. However, both of the Cyniclons told her that they wouldn't interfere or hinder her plan. Either way, they weren't there to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

"Yes. I did hear that, Emperor Caelestinus." Ichigo blinked as Kisshu raised his head, with a wide smile on, she could see a... **pink** aura around him. There was even a couple of flowers floating around. _Man, he's a better actor than I thought._ Suddenly, his expression changed to a more normal one for the yandere stalker. "Ichigo gave into the fearsome power of the _throne_. But please, Your Highness, remember that since she is exotic, she doesn't know about the true horrors of this world, so please try to be understanding. Oh, and did you know Your Highness?" Caelestinus's eyes had grown wide, and he was obviously surprised by what Kisshu had subtly implied. Probably angry and frustrated as well.

"W-what?" Kisshu's evil grin widened.

"Human girls now-a-days usually don't marry until their late twenties at the earliest. Most Japanese girls-oh, correction- Japanese good girls, like Ichigo, usually remain virgins until after they are legally married."

"Huh?! Really?! Is-is this true?!" _When was he planning on forcing himself on me exactly?_ Ichigo stared at the arrogant pervert until she blushed, thinking about how Kisshu would dare to publicly announce the state of her virginity! She was proud of the fact that she was walking the maiden's path, and the idiot was so going to get an ear-full tonight.

"Y-yes, Your Highness." She finally answered, and the tyrant's shoulders sagged.

"So, please try to be respectful of your concubine's culture, and refrain from having her tonight. In fact, unless you plan on making her you're legal wife, you shouldn't try to force her into anything ever." Kisshu walked up to the pair, and gently removed the Emperor's arm from the girl's shoulders. He glared, then started pulling Ichigo to the door.

Even when the two made it out of the throne room, Kisshu continued dragging Ichigo down a series of hallways and stairs until they reached their room. When the door was shut, Kisshu pressed the human against the wood. Through her clothes, he kissed all the places the Emperor had touched. Which mainly meant her shoulders.

"Kisshu... stop it. I'm-!" The Cyniclon had bit her shoulder, and he raised his head to look Ichigo straight in the eyes.

"I want my payment for having to quietly sit through that ordeal, Koneko-chan."

"Oh, and let me guess, you want your payment in the form of a kiss, am I right?" Kisshu's regular smirk grew larger, and he lightly bumped his forehead against hers.

"You're getting to know me better and better each day, Strawberry." Ichigo of course started to blush deeply, and she asked what she had always been wondering since he first started the idea.

"Why do you always insist on this type of payment? Pervert."

"I only request it from you, Koneko-chan."

Kisshu then continued collecting his abnormal "payment."

**AN: ̚ -̚ …... I'm sick of this. I know all of my beloved readers have been sick of this for a while. I'm sick of this and I'm ashamed and I'm sorry. So very, very sorry. Just to be clear-I'm sick of the short chapters, not writing the story itself. Again, thank you all for still reading this story even if there are only short chapters. I hope you'll continue to do so from now on, and I will not stop this story until I post a 7-page chapter. Then I will continue the story with 8, 9, 10-page chapters until it is wrapped up. I just need to get around to actually completing a 7-page chapter.**

** Sorry and thank you all, and please review for this chapter too. Arigato.**


	11. Chapter 11: Plan Pretend-then-Backfire

**AN: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. Again, the idea for Pretend-then-Backfire came from kisshuismylife. Thank you kisshuismylife, and everyone who reads my story. I love you guys!**

Day 1 of Plan Pretend-then-Backfire:

"Really?! You'll accept it?!" Caelestinus jumped up from his throne, looking almost like a kid with the happy and exited look directed at Ichigo.

"Yeah. I don't see anything else I can do." The human replied.

It had been easier than she had expected to get Kish to agree to her plan. But there was still that... _condition_. She didn't see as to what relevance it had. Maybe he was just being over-protective? Possessive? His usual strange and obsessed self? Still, she had given him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to avoid spending the night in the Emperor's chambers, instead she would stay with Kisshu. He had been right, she had not planned to spend any more time than necessary with Caelestinus. And she would probably just stay with Kisshu in those rooms since she had not been given any other place to sleep. So it didn't change her plans any. The only problem was-well, you know Kisshu. He would sooner kiss her in her sleep or something perverted like that than be a gentleman. Hah! Kisshu was the antonym of gentleman.

"Did you hear that, Kisshu Ikisatashi?" Caelestinus had walked down and slung his arm around Ichigo's shoulders. _Seriously, are all Cyniclon males perverts?!_ Ichigo looked over at Kisshu, who had started shaking in anger. She had told him to just act like he naturally would, but she was starting to worry that he'd take it too far. His eyes were shadowed over, and he was obviously angry.

Pai and Taruto were not around, having politely refused to come. They had also politely refused to take direct part in the plan. Well, Pai had simply flat out said "no," then returned to his book. Taruto had yelled at her to leave him alone. However, both of the Cyniclons told her that they wouldn't interfere or hinder her plan. Either way, they weren't there to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

"Yes. I did hear that, Emperor Caelestinus." Ichigo blinked as Kisshu raised his head, with a wide smile on, she could see a... **pink** aura around him. There was even a couple of flowers floating around. _Man, he's a better actor than I thought._ Suddenly, his expression changed to a more normal one for the yandere stalker. "Ichigo gave into the fearsome power of the _throne_. But please, Your Highness, remember that since she is exotic, she doesn't know about the true horrors of this world, so please try to be understanding. Oh, and did you know Your Highness?" Caelestinus's eyes had grown wide, and he was obviously surprised by what Kisshu had subtly implied. Probably angry and frustrated as well.

"W-what?" Kisshu's evil grin widened.

"Human girls now-a-days usually don't marry until their late twenties at the earliest. Most Japanese girls-oh, correction- Japanese good girls, like Ichigo, usually remain virgins until after they are legally married."

"Huh?! Really?! Is-is this true?!" _When was he planning on forcing himself on me exactly?_ Ichigo stared at the arrogant pervert until she blushed, thinking about how Kisshu would dare to publicly announce the state of her virginity! She was proud of the fact that she was walking the maiden's path, and the idiot was so going to get an ear-full tonight.

"Y-yes, Your Highness." She finally answered, and the tyrant's shoulders sagged.

"So, please try to be respectful of your concubine's culture, and refrain from having her tonight. In fact, unless you plan on making her you're legal wife, you shouldn't try to force her into anything ever." Kisshu walked up to the pair, and gently removed the Emperor's arm from the girl's shoulders. He glared, then started pulling Ichigo to the door.

Even when the two made it out of the throne room, Kisshu continued dragging Ichigo down a series of hallways and stairs until they reached their room. When the door was shut, Kisshu pressed the human against the wood. Through her clothes, he kissed all the places the Emperor had touched. Which mainly meant her shoulders.

"Kisshu... stop it. I'm-!" The Cyniclon had bit her shoulder, and he raised his head to look Ichigo straight in the eyes.

"I want my payment for having to quietly sit through that ordeal, Koneko-chan."

"Oh, and let me guess, you want your payment in the form of a kiss, am I right?" Kisshu's regular smirk grew larger, and he lightly bumped his forehead against hers.

"You're getting to know me better and better each day, Strawberry." Ichigo of course started to blush deeply, and she asked what she had always been wondering since he first started the idea.

"Why do you always insist on this type of payment? Pervert."

"I only request it from you, Koneko-chan."

Kisshu then continued collecting his abnormal "payment."

**AN: ̚ -̚ …... I'm sick of this. I know all of my beloved readers have been sick of this for a while. I'm sick of this and I'm ashamed and I'm sorry. So very, very sorry. Just to be clear-I'm sick of the short chapters, not writing the story itself. Again, thank you all for still reading this story even if there are only short chapters. I hope you'll continue to do so from now on, and I will not stop this story until I post a 7-page chapter. Then I will continue the story with 8, 9, 10-page chapters until it is wrapped up. I just need to get around to actually completing a 7-page chapter.**

** Sorry and thank you all, and please review for this chapter too. Arigato. New chapter coming right up.**

-_- = Time Passing

Day 2 of Plan Pretend-then-Backfire:

Ichigo got out of bed in the morning, and continued cleaning herself up for the day. When she was in the middle of brushing her teeth, Kisshu lugged himself out from under the warm blankets, walked over and leaned heavily on the Mew.

"Kish! What do you think you're-!" Ichigo had quickly turned around, and while she was trying to support him, he leaned over and pressed his lips to hers.

"I could get used to mornings like this." The Cyniclon mumbled, hugging the girl.

"Well, I know that I'll never enjoy mornings like these, let alone get used to them." Ichigo huffed, struggling to lower Kish to the floor.

"You're cruel Koneko-chan. You know that right?"

"Cruel? Look who's talking."

"When did I ever do anything that was cruel?"

"Oh, come on-" Just as Ichigo was about to snap out all the instances from two years ago that she considered cruel, the heavy wooden door opened to reveal the oddly dressed butler of the palace. He coughed and looked behind the two when he gave the announcement.

"His Highness would like to see Concubine Momomiya in the throne room." Ichigo stood up, nodding in acknowledgment. However, when Kisshu attempted the same, he staggered back to the floor.

"Kisshu?!" The human knelt down, and felt the green-haired Cyniclon's forehead. "Kami, you're burning up!"

"Would you like me to tell the Emperor that you had a prior engagement?" The middle aged butler looked expressionlessly at the pair knelt on the floor, but Ichigo thought the man a little kind then.

"Yes, I really would like to look after Kisshu, at least for today."

"Very well." With that, the butler took his leave after telling a passing by maid to get some cold medicine. When they were alone, Kisshu leaped up, utterly surprising the Mew.

"Whew. That was tiresome, but I must be a good actor, because I almost really do feel warm."

"Ki-Kish-"

"Shh, Strawberry, I want to do a little investigating, and plus..."

"But you were hot! I mean- you're body temperature was... you have at least a 100°F fever!"

"Calm down, Koneko-chan. Cyniclon's naturally run warmer than humans. I'm perfectly healthy."

"Huh?"

"I mean that my natural temperature is 107°F. If I had a severe fever I would be around 110°. You don't have to worry!"

"BAKA!" Ichigo raised her voice, and tackled the rather pleasantly surprised Cyniclon. She raised her head, and looked him straight in the eyes. "Couldn't you have at least told me? I was worried, and then you go and try to act like it's not a big deal! People die from temperatures like that!"

"Well, not me."

"OBVIOUSLY!" Ichigo started to sniff, of course she would start crying. Kami, she always cried. "You should have told me... sniff... at least warn me in some way... hic... meanie... liar..."

"Come on, Strawberry... don't cry." Kisshu leaned on one arm and caught a few drops on his finger.

"I-I can't help it." Ichigo leaned back, not realizing that she was now sitting in Kisshu's lap when he sat up. Kisshu rubbed her face, trying to dispel the salt water on her cheeks.

"I don't know how I can stop you from crying... please, stop it." Ichigo laughed a little, and got up from her awkward seat on Kisshu's lap.

"I have to naturally stop tearing up eventually, Kish. You don't need to be so worried. Besides, I need to toughen up some time." Ichigo helped Kisshu up, and glanced thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Hey, I just decided something, do you want to know what it is?"

"...I don't know. Is it another one of your insane ideas?"

"You might think so." Ichigo replied with out hesitation. The Cyniclon hung his head in defeat. How the heck had they ended up as comrades and friends was beyond him, but he was grateful that he was no longer enemies with the Mew. Of course, there really was no need to fight anymore, but he was afraid to talk about the past, mainly what had transpired when they were constantly fighting each other.

"Fine. What is it?" _Please don't be suicidal, please don't be suicidal, please, please, __**please**__ don't be suicidal._

"I need to fix all the problems on this planet, then I need to find out how to get back." _No, forget suicidal, she's going for a plan that is virtually impossible!_

"Strawberry, you're asking for world peace. Do you think world peace is possible for your planet?"

"No." Ichigo didn't even blink. _Thank God she isn't so completely ditzy like one of those... those... Pradgent girls?_

"Then it sure as heck isn't possible here. We're worse than you humans are. Peace isn't even in most people's vocabulary, and definitely not in those in power heads'. Cyniclons were bred into war. It was the only way to survive, still is in some ways- wait. What? Go back? To where?"

"Earth of course. You can't possibly expect me to not go back home. To where I belong." Kisshu stared off into space, in a daze. His eyes shadowed over as he suddenly took hold of Ichigo's shoulders, and slammed her onto the floor. The breath went out of her as her back made contact with hard cement tiles.

"You're not leaving. You're not. You want to know why?"

"W-why...?" Ichigo rasped out, her lungs just starting to work again.

"Because I'll hold you to that newly realized goal of yours. And like I said, what you want to do will never be completed in your life time. In fact, I can guarantee that no matter how many generations pass, world peace on this planet will never occur. That is why, Koneko-chan, you will never be able to leave." After his personal sentence, Kisshu quickly released Ichigo and got up. He roughly jerked the girl up on her feet and dragged her out of the bed chambers.

Kisshu and Ichigo had spent the rest of the day finding out where the rest of the royal family were being held. They were held in a large tower like building. The two didn't talk about what had happened in the rooms. After finding out and confirming that what they had found to be true, Kisshu sent Ichigo to the room. He said that he was going to tell his foster brothers the new information, but the Cyniclon didn't come back that night.

**AN: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. Thank you everyone that reviewed, and I also got a few new favorites and followers. Welcome guys! I hope you liked this short chapter. Let's see what happens in the next one. I updated a little early because I need Sunday for my schoolwork. Thank you everyone who hasn't given up on me and has read this chapter. **

** REVIEW!**


	12. Chapter 12: Nicknames

-...- = Change in POV

-_- =Passing of Time

Day 3 of Plan Pretend-then-Backfire:

Kisshu didn't come back in the morning either. Caelestinus had called for her 3 times that day, and the human had just turned down yet another summons.

"This might ruin the plan..." Ichigo murmured to herself as her eyes shadowed over. Placing her arm over her eyes, Ichigo tried not to think about Kisshu.

_You're not leaving. You're not._

_ It sure as heck isn't possible here._

_ In fact, I can guarantee that no matter how many generations pass, world peace on this planet will never occur. That is why, Koneko-chan, you will never be able to leave._

Tears started welling up, stinging her behind the eyes. Why? Why would he say those things? Weren't they just starting to be friends? She thought she didn't have to fight anymore. She figured that what happened two years ago was in the past, no matter how many times they brought it up. Couldn't he go one day without tormenting her, even now?

To top it all off, he didn't even come back! How the heck was she supposed to find him if she didn't know right from left in this place?! He could have at least told her if he was staying out! Maybe he was in Pai or Taruto's room. But he would have come back to try to clear the foul air by now, right? What if something happened?! What was she supposed to do then?!

What if something... happened...?

-...-

Kisshu sighed, laying in his bed. He had been staring at the ceiling for a few hours now, moaning and sighing as he regretted ruining the trust he had built. He knew that he should go back to the room he shared with Ichigo, but when it had gotten dark out, he had decided to stay in Pai's room, claiming exhaustion. Kisshu's foster brother had not pressed the matter, even though he was surely aware of Kisshu's situation. Either Pai was being considerate, or he didn't care. Being childhood friends, Kish suspected that the latter was the case. Kisshu groaned yet again.

"You are irritating, Kisshu." Pai spoke up from an armchair near a lamp post, a book in hand.

"How so?" Kish mumbled, knowing that Pai could pick it up.

"If you insist on picking up bad habits, you should clean up your act."

"What act? What I feel for Ichigo is real." Pai grunted, turning a page from the book before replying.

"For instance, you could try to use her actual name to address her. Similar to what you address her with around me. I believe that it starts with an 'I.' Do you think you could handle that?"

"Of course! I just don't want to."

"May I ask why?"

"You may." A silence stretched out between the two, until Pai closed his book and faced Kisshu over the head of the arm chair.

"Why?"

"I'm not going to tell you." Kisshu huffed, and Pai sent a small electric wave at him. The effect was that of a shock from a metal door handle. "Ow!"

"Kisshu. I do not care for your jests. They grew old long ago."

"Fine, fine, have it your way, jerk." Kisshu huffed indignantly again, and sat up with his legs crossed. "I don't want to because... because it's the only way that I know how to call her. I- I think people call it embarrassment." Pai blinked then finally stated what was so obviously the truth, at least to him.

"You can't be serious, Kisshu. Do you honestly expect me to believe you? You must be trying to insult my pride."

"Yeash, Pai, I just can't fool you, can I?"

"No, you can't. Now get out before I turn you into toast. Leave this room at once and calm the seas." Pai reopened the book that had held his attention and began reading yet again, making his dismissal final. But just before Kisshu closed the door behind him, Pai called out, "and Kisshu?"

"Yes? What now?"

"Who mentioned Momomiya-san? I did not." Pai gave Kisshu his version of a victorious smirk, which was that a corner of his mouth turned up exactly 0.102 degrees. "Now go and play at this thing you call romance, Romeo." Stuttering, Kisshu finally managed to shoot back a retort.

"Stupid jerk, come up with your own nicknames. And for God's sake, don't use one that I gave my rival to refer to me."

"I remember that you had not stood a chance. He was not your rival. Your delusional mind just thought of it that way."

"Ignoring what you really just said, I like the use of past tense there. Nice pep talk." Before he finally closed the door, Kisshu murmured a thanks, then set off. Pai's smile turned up another 0.002 degrees more.

"About time this happened." He stoically remarked to no one in particular, forcing the "smile" off his face.

Kisshu was walking down a corridor that was just another part of the maze back to the room. He had first took off at a running start, but slowed when he realized that he didn't know what to _say_ to Ichigo. How the heck was he supposed to get her to forgive him? No way was he going apologize. Even if he did say sorry, it would likely turn out to sound false anyway. Maybe he could-!

**SLAM!**

"Ouch. Who ran into me?!" Kisshu exclaimed as maroon hair lifted itself into his view. "Ichigo?!"

"Ite... that hurt, baka! Watch where you're going!"

"What do you mean, calling me an idiot!? Why should I-!" Ichigo suddenly went limp, her head resting on his chest, promptly cutting him off, and making him insanely worried about her.

"I'm glad that you're safe. I was worried that something had happened to you. When you didn't come back last night, I didn't mind it at first. But all I could do was think about what had happened and wonder what had set you off. Then I started wondering what you were doing, and I started getting worried that something had happened to you. So without thinking I just..." Ichigo continued her explanation in a rapid fire rant, not even aware that she was clinging to Kisshu. "That's why I'm so happy that I ran into you. I had no idea what I was going to do if I couldn't find you."

"Koneko-chan, calm down. I'm fine." He hugged her to him, awkwardly patting the girl's head. "I'm fine. You don't need to worry anymore."

After Ichigo had caught her breath, her eyes snapped open, and she flung herself off of the Cyniclon. _Way too soon, might I add._ He sighed for the billionth time that day, only this time it was for a very different reason.

"Ichigo! I'm glad that you could finally answer my summons!" Caelestinus jumped up from his throne and walked down the shallow steps when he saw the Mew walk into the throne room.

"I'm also glad that I could, your Majesty." Ichigo calmly answered, wanting nothing more than to run from the room, screaming bloody murder. But for the sake of her plan, she held it in and didn't move away when the dictator grabbed her waist.

"You ignored your ruler so many times that I was losing patience. But just before I was about to throw you in the dungeons, you came at your last chance." _That's the only reason, your Highness._ Ichigo bit her cheek to keep from sarcastically throwing the snip at his face. "I see that you didn't bring the third wheel around, for once."

"Yes. I didn't want to overstep my bounds anymore than I already had." Caelestinus burst out in arrogant laughter, and released his hold on the girl to pat her on the back.

"What a smart girl you are!"

"I'm flattered, your Highness."

"Please, call me Caelestinus." The tyrant pushed his face close to Ichigo's. _Ew. _Using all of the experience of a waitress, the disgusted human smiled and calmly refused. Half of that was right.

"I'd be honored to." No way was she going to.

"That's good." _It's not good. Not in the least._ "Anyway, the reason I wanted to talk to you was that I want to invite you somewhere." _Don't want to go anywhere with you. I don't even what to be in the same room as you._

"Where is it your Highness?"

"It's a type of festival for my having a new concubine. I think you humans call it a ball. Or at least that's what I'm told. I did some research on your race. It's interesting the quirks you little guys have." _You don't need to research. Because with any luck, I won't have to see your face for the rest of my life 'cause you'll end up in these dungeons you're so fond of._ "It's a once in a life time chance, Ichigo. But it doesn't matter, you'll be coming with me whether you like it or not."

"Of course. I'd be honored to." _Just keep it up Ichigo, then you'll be able to leave soon._

"That's a good girl. I'll even help you pick out the attire."

"I wouldn't want to impose." _I can dress myself._

"Don't be silly! All my concubines have to have the same colors as me. Otherwise we'd clash." _What is he, a diva?!_ Ichigo glanced at what the Emperor was wearing at the moment. Ruffles, ruffles, and... more ruffles. The entire outfit reminded Ichigo of a pompous prince, with white and red ruffles making up the ensemble. _He looks like a valentine card._

"Then you may tell me what colors you shall wear, and I will do my best to accommodate." Ichigo turned on her heel, and briskly walked to the gigantic doors that were opening for her to escape.

"But then you'll look different then the others-"

"Didn't you know, you Highness?" Ichigo had exited the room, but she turned back as the doors started to close. "Humans like to stand out from a crowd. You should never tell a human girl to wear the same dress as others at a dance." The doors slammed shut just after Ichigo finished her tip to the arrogant ruler. "Moron." She laughed under her breath, and took a running start to her room.

-...-

The door slammed shut, startling the Cyniclon in the room. He peered over the top of the couch he was sprawled on, and found a human girl breathing heavily, leaning against the door.

"Koneko-chan? I thought you were going to be with the royal pain."

"Can't... can't you come up with more original nicknames?"

"I try to, but it doesn't work out."

"Obviously. I mean, Kitty Cat? Royal Pain? Romeo-" She cut herself off then, and a heartbroken expression took over her features. Kisshu didn't like it. She looked the same as when she first mentioned Romeo in the kitchen when she first came to his planet. _What the heck did that guy do to her?! I really should have killed him back when I was expected to._

"Strawberry..." Kisshu struggled to come up with something to take Ichigo's mind off of the man Kisshu had hated for nearly 3 years. "What did you talk about with... Caelestinus?" Ichigo looked shocked, but she soon smiled and told Kisshu the last thing he would have expected.

"I have a date with him. Tonight." Kisshu blinked, then his eyes took on their normal glint. Turning his head away from her he spoke his immediate thoughts on the matter.

"They just keep coming out of the wood work, don't they?"

"Who does what?" Ichigo innocently asked as she walked over to sit on the arm of the couch.

"Nothing, nothing... why are you staring at me?" Ichigo's eyes widened again, and she immediately looked down on the floor.

"It's... fine." Kisshu floated up, and sat right next to her, holding a steady gaze to the side of the Mew's face. He studied her for a while more before speaking up again.

"What's wrong? You're acting weird."

"I said it's fine. I'm fine. You don't need to worry."

"But I do. I am." Ichigo said nothing, still glaring at the floor in stubborn determination. "I didn't plan on asking this, but what happened with Romeo back on Earth?" Finally, Ichigo lifted her head up, and Kisshu immediately regretted his success. She looked so depressed and breakable, like she would be so easily crushed to pieces if he so much as pressed the subject. Of course, he couldn't help but want to see what would happen if he did make her explain. He kept up his scrutinizing of her expression and waited for any answer the girl would give him.

"W-why would you want to know what happened. Of course... we were happy. After a year Aoyama-san came back and we went on plenty of dates. We were happy..." She trailed off, probably lost in what were supposed to be happy memories. When she looked back to the sadistic Cyniclon, her expression was so vacant of emotion that it scared Kish.

"..."

"Weren't we?"

The tears in Ichigo's eyes had welled up, and started gushing down her cheeks. She then promptly ran away and closed the door to a small study that was attached to the suite. Kisshu guessed that the human had not wanted him to see her cry, and he had not bothered her for half an hour. But he eventually worked up the courage to knock on the door when the quiet, barely controlled sobs could no longer be heard from the other side.

"Koneko-chan, I think you should start deciding on what to wear to this date of yours." Silence met him, but the door slowly creaked open, and a tired Mew trudged out.

"You're not mad that I'm going?"

"I'm sure that you are going to be suffering through it, so that takes away some of my wrath. Just be warned, I'm going to have to sterilize you as soon as we come back."

"You're coming too?"

"It's that ball thing, right? I'd expect that all of top ranking society are going to be attending, myself included."

"You're nobility?"

"Not quite. I'm actually the equivalent of a human Major. Captains and higher are coming, so no matter what Caelestinus wants, I'm going too."

"Really?" Ichigo's eyes started to sparkle. _Jeez, she must really hate his royal highness if she's __relieved that __**I'm**__ going to be there._

"Yep." He nodded, trying to enjoy the favoritism as much as he possibly could.

"I see. That's good." Her expression changed from happy to stern in a matter of seconds. "Just don't freak out and try anything stupid. No matter what happens, okay?" _She's so easy to read._

"No problem. I already came up with a trick for my temper."

"Really? Did you get counciling?"

"No. We both know that would never help me." He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I'm going to have fantasies all by my self, and decide which ones I'm going to act out as soon as the night's over. That should keep me occupied, right?" When he rose back up to his full height, he noticed that Ichigo had the exact reaction that he expected. She was blushing like mad and acted furious to cover up her embarrassment.

"HENTAI!" She lunged at him, but Kish easily dodged his attacker. She really had let herself get rusty.

"Hai, hai. Now, how about we go pick out that dress of yours?" She agreed, putting on a false air even though she was still flushed a little.

Kisshu led her out of the royal palace's grounds and into town. When the girl worried that they wouldn't be able to get back inside easily, Kish assured her that they would be able to get in with the invitees, so they could relax until the dance started. When they reached the street that was full of stores, Ichigo ignored the expensive places and went to a common thrift store.

"Are you sure you want to buy hand-me-downs? I could just buy you something new, plus they're bound to have nicer things over there." He pointed down the street to a group of top-class clothing stores.

"No, I prefer to get clothes from places like these. Less snobbish, and they always have something that's simple. I will _not_ wear a corset or anything painful like that."

"No one expects you to, but... don't you ever want to wear something pretty?" Glaring up at him, Ichigo huffed and stalked into the thrift store.

"I'll show you pretty. Heck, I'll even make sure that I'm the best looking girl there!" _She sure is confident. But still, there are people that will be attending that have others paid to design clothes just for them! And she thinks she can beat that?_ Kisshu thought back to all the other parties he had attended. He had never really wanted to go to the gatherings, but Pai had forced him to come. The guy can be pretty unfeeling, but the foster brother had tried his hardest to get Kisshu's mind off of a certain human girl. The Cyniclon tried to remember what the females of the party had been wearing, and he could see plenty of lace, over sized skirts, too big sleeves with beads, sequins, and sparkles practically dumped on top of them along with feathers over satin and silk.

When the Ikisatashi sons had come back, lots of nobles and the like had wanted their families to be tied with "heroes." As a result, Pai-who had already surpassed the marriageable age of 16- and Kish-who was going to turn 16 in 2 months- were hounded by the nobles and their daughters. He hadn't cared about any girl except Ichigo, so he had blown all advances off. Pai held no emotion, and when asked, he would simply answer with "I have no patience to deal with needy women." Kisshu was still given marriage proposals, but they had died down over the years. Pai had surpassed the limit for marriage, so no one pestered him any more. Pai was now 26, and the latest most people married was at 24.

The point was that Kisshu had heard compliments, and was forced to look at plenty of "beautiful" women. The women themselves never stayed in his mind long, but the fashions had all blended together to give the Cyniclon a sense of what they at least wore. In the end, Kisshu was confident that Ichigo would be able to pull off what she promised.

While he had been in a reverie, Ichigo had already found the perfect dress, and was in the dressing room trying it on. She had already decided that she would buy this one. As soon as she saw it, it was like she was in one of those movies. She knew that this dress was the one she would wear. It was perfect.

With a smile on her face, she asked one of the attendants of the store to shoo Kisshu out so she could buy the dress, and surprise him later.

When Ichigo stepped out of the building, Kisshu immediately asked to see the dress, but she stubbornly refused. Seeing the human happy, Kisshu relented, and played along, trying to be patient.

The pair spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city. They mostly drifted, and when one saw something interesting, they decided to go and see what was happening. A couple more shops, a type of park/zoo, some museums, a cafe for lunch, and other random places that sparked their interest.

Kisshu surprisingly enjoyed exploring. He found some places he had never been to before, and he wanted to continue the day forever. Ichigo smiled at him plenty of times, and he found himself completely fulfilled. He liked Ichigo's happy expressions more than anything. He had never gotten the chance to see Ichigo's smile up close. He only saw it when she was with that Aoyama on one of their stupid dates. He knew that they went to plenty of stuffy museums, a zoo, the park, things like that.

Suddenly, Kisshu stopped in his tracks.

"Kisshu? What's the matter?" _Isn't that what Ichigo's doing with __**me**__ now?_ He went through all the things he had forced himself to witness when spying on Aoyama and Ichigo, and realized that everything that had been included on these "dates" were the exact things that he had done with Ichigo. His smirk grew, and he reached over and grabbed the girl's hand.

"Come on, Koneko-chan. I want to show you one last thing before you go back." After some half-hearted and useless complaints and questions, Ichigo wordlessly followed Kisshu. _When did she start to trust me so much?_

A couple of minutes of walking, and they had arrived. Ichigo gasped, taken aback by the sheer beauty of it all. The sky was getting dark, but there was just enough light for her to take in the scene. It was a clearing, a meadow, surrounded by gold trees. Most of the space was completely filled with light purple flowers. It wasn't until the two drew closer that Ichigo realized that the flowers were lavender. Lavender was her favorite flower, and it was the closest thing to home she ever found on this planet. She stared up at Kisshu, and unconsciously squeezed his hand.

Kish's head snapped over to stare in shock at the Mew. He forced himself to relax and take in the scenery with the girl who was standing next to him. He lead her to a patch of long grass and told her to sit down. When he lowered himself down next to her, he silenced all questions that came up, telling her to wait and listen.

Ichigo heard the sounds as soon as the sun started setting. They sounded like whistles and violins. Harps and a far away voice singing. All of these things came to make a song that was the very definition of beautiful. Ichigo couldn't understand the word's meaning, but she could tell that they were sad.

"The song is in the old tongue. No one knows what they sing about." The human turned to Kisshu, questions mingled with wonder.

"They? Is it a concert? Are there people here? I don't see any."

"Easy, Strawberry. Calm down, there's no one else here." He looked over the field. "Now shush. When it get completely dark, the song will stop. Look." Ichigo did, and watched with wide eyes as an old cherry tree in full bloom bled into existence. Tiny lights started rising from the earth, and they floated to the tree, attaching their brilliance to it.

"Who's singing?" Ichigo repeated in a whisper. Glancing at her, Kisshu answered with complete sincerity.

"The earth. The planet itself. There are several places all over the world that the planet sings to it's people." His smirk was replaced with a frown. "Some people think it's a cry for help. That the Mew Aqua is doing something to the planet. But that should be impossible, right?"

"Yes. It has to be impossible. Nothing happened to our planet. No problems."_ All because you were there, Kish got demoted! It's all your fault that Kish had to go through everything!_

"Wait, you got demoted from a position, but you're a Major?" Kisshu was surprised, but put his chin in his hand, laying on the ground on his stomach.

"Well, there are actually more titles in the service that are given, but you're right. I was demoted." His golden pupils slid to gauge Ichigo's reaction. "I was the human equivalent of a general. Quite a blow to my ego, I must admit." Several seconds ticked by before Ichigo jumped further away.

"Whaaaaaaat~?!"

"Wow. Late reaction, Miss Leader-of-the-group-of-human-girls-that-got-me-demoted."

"And that is why you should just call me Ichigo. You come up with the worst nicknames."

"Sorry, but I'm original in all other categories." Another late reaction from the Mew, only this time, instead of shock or surprise, she blushed. "Oh~? Did you just think of something dirty, Koneko-chan?"

"Wha-what do you mean? I'm not a pervert like you are." Kisshu couldn't help it. Ichigo's reactions were just too funny. He started laughing, not able to hold it in.

By the time Kisshu was able to calm down, the sky was completely dark, and the flowers had stopped singing. The two were able to watch as the cherry tree faded back out of existence. The Cyniclon got up, and then helped Ichigo to her feet. Ichigo remembered something from two years ago when the started walking back to the palace.

"Remember that cherry tree that you tried to kill off?" Not for the first time that day, Kisshu was surprised by the subject that Ichigo brought up.

"Yeah... I'd nearly forgotten."

"You forgot?!"

"Sorry, but think about the soldiers in those wars on Earth. Do they try to remember the thing they did when they come back home? No, they don't."

"You looked like you were enjoying yourself all the time. Especially when I was in pain."

"Well, yeah. I'm a sadist, what do you expect? You come up with plenty of things to call me, talk about bad nicknames."

"What?! My nicknames are so much better than yours!" Kisshu started counting off of the names he had been given.

"Yandere. It's too obvious, I'm the definition of what that means. Pervert. What do you expect? Cyniclon or human, all males my age will be perverted. It's a fact of life. Idiot. Not true, and so unoriginal. I'll ignore all the rest, seeing as how these are the top most ones that you use."

"Hmph! Aoyama-san wasn't a pervert." Again, that heartbroken expression as soon as Romeo was mentioned. Without any other ideas, Kisshu started up another conversation. He was interested in it as well, so it didn't matter if they stopped such an awkward train of thought.

"What did you get for a dress?" Grateful for the distraction, Ichigo hugged the shopping bag to her chest.

"You're going to have to wait and see!"

"Wow." That was all Kisshu could think to say as Ichigo came into view.

She was in a dress that reached the floor. But unlike the party dresses that most wore, this one's skirt didn't poof out. It had strips of some maroon cloth the same color as Ichigo's hair as the skirt. Under the flowing fabric, a white slip the same length as the strips covered any leg that might have been visible otherwise. The strips of fabric came together to form the top of the dress. The sleeves were short, only meant to give some coverage. They were split down the sides, flowing just as much as the skirt. A ribbon a slightly lighter shade was tied around the waist, and was allowed to fall to the floor. The cloth that made up the majority of the dress had small white flowers dotting in a random pattern all around the top. Ichigo's hair was tied in a high ponytail, and was coaxed into waves that just barely brushed her back.

Kisshu whistled before giving Ichigo a,"you were right. You can clean up nicely."

Kish led the human to where the festival was taking place. Even though Ichigo and Kish called the celebration a festival, some people would call the large dance hall a ballroom. The two friends joked with each other, and Kish steered the human away from any trouble she might inadvertently get herself into. But then Caelestinus arrived, fashionably late might I add.

Something resembling fanfare sounded, blasting across the room. Soldiers saluted, women bowed, everything reminded Ichigo of a Victorian style ball for a prince's birthday. She was in a fairytale, and the Mew didn't like having to be the main attraction.

Before Caelestinus had made his extravagant entrance, Ichigo had noticed the stares and whispers. But with Kish next to her, always provided the distraction she needed. However, when his royal pain pressured the human to stand beside his throne, she could no longer ignore the fact that she was a zoo animal. One by one people came and congratulated the Emperor on getting such an "exotic and strange creature" as a concubine. No one payed attention to anything about her except that she was a human.

Ichigo wanted to run from that room and never look back. Or at least go and find Kish.

"Ichigo, do you like it?" Caelestinus's voice pulled Ichigo out of her thoughts. She no longer felt weird wanting to be around or thinking about Kisshu. Sure, he still was slightly out of his mind, and sometimes that **really** showed, but they had become friends.

"Like what, Your Highness?" The tyrant frowned, and glared at Ichigo.

"Do you like the party?" His voice had taken on a dangerous hint, and Ichigo knew that this was one of those times where she should tread wisely.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I like it very much. Thank you." _Everything I just said there was a lie. _

"I told you. Call me Caelestinus."

"I couldn't. Not in public." Ichigo noticed Kisshu in the back of the crowded hall, and she immediately came up with an excuse to leave. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I'm so nervous. Perhaps I could get something to drink?" _Weak excuse, but it could work. Luckily Kisshu's near the punch. Or whatever that stuff is._ Caelestinus scowled, obviously suspicious, but allowed Ichigo to leave the throne's side and get something to drink.

"Oh! Excuse me... coming through... ow!" Ichigo had tried to weave her way through the crowd of dancers, but sadly, she was anything but graceful. Someone stomped on her foot, and others started bumping into her when she leaned down to try to massage the pain out. Grumbles and yelps sounded before a hand grabbed her hand, and another her waist.

"What happened to all that feistyness from this afternoon go?"

"Kisshu!" The Cyniclon started leading her, and Ichigo was instantly able to dance.

"The one and only, sunshine." Ichigo giggled, remembering the few times that Kisshu had decided to add a little variety to his collection of nicknames for her.

"Add that one to the list of Really Bad Names from Kisshu."

"Aw, why do you always pick on me?" Kisshu pouted for a second to empathize his slight hurt on the matter, but soon replaced it with a smirk. "Well, the royal pain looks awfully jealous." Kisshu jerked his chin in the direction of the throne. Through the spinning, Ichigo noticed that the Emperor was growing red in the face.

"I suppose that it's true." She remarked, giggling again.

"No kidding." After that, the pair didn't talk, they just danced. Ichigo lost herself in the music, and Kisshu tried to ingrain the moment in his memory.

The night passed with Ichigo mostly staying next to Caelestinus. When ever she couldn't take the stares and snickers anymore, either Kisshu would come to her, or she would find some excuse to go to him.

When every one of the guests left, the time must have been very late, because Ichigo had found a chair a little ways down the hall and drifted off to sleep. Kisshu, being used to these kinds of parties, not to mention being a night owl, was wide awake. Caelestinus had grown tired of waiting for Ichigo to come back to him, and sent Kisshu to go an retrieve her.

"I don't like you, in fact I hate you, but you're the only one around here right now that knows her well enough to be able to guess where she is." That was what Kisshu was told by Caelestinus, and he admitted proudly that it was true. He just left out one small detail. That he could guess because he stalked her most of the time 2 years ago, so he knew her habits. Also her bedtime, and he suspected that nothing had changed for her except her age.

His first guess was correct of course. Loosening his tie-he was dressed in a formal wear, which by the way covered his midriff- Kisshu picked the human girl up, and carried her back into the hall.

"W-what are you doing?!" Caelestinus leaped down from his throne, and tried charging at Kisshu.

"Quiet. She's sleeping, moron."

"H-how dare-!" Kisshu couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed one of his Dragon Swords and pushed it against the tyrant's neck.

"Just remember. I could easily kill you right here. Sure, I might be found guilty of killing you, but no one would really care. But that's not what I really want you to know." Kisshu's eyes narrowed. He was still holding Ichigo with one arm, and to make sure she stayed asleep, he was whispering just loud enough for the Emperor to hear him in the empty hall. "Ichigo is mine. Never forget it." He let go of his weapon, and it disappeared like usual.

Kisshu then stalked out of the large ballroom and down the many hallways to his and Ichigo's room. He then laid the sleeping girl on the bed, careful not to wake her up. He sat down on the bed, and studied Ichigo. She was even more cute than he remembered. He carefully took the elastic out of her hair, and started playing with the maroon colored strands.

"Darn it, I wanted to sterilize you **awake**, Koneko-chan. But I guess this has it's own charm in a way." He had been watching Ichigo the entire time, taking note of every place that Caelestinus had touched. Waist, neck, hair, and shoulders. Ichigo had managed to keep him off of her for the most part, but even she could not get the tyrant to hold himself back completely. He replaced the Emperor's filthy germs with his own, and just for good measure, he kissed her lips. He had been distracted a couple of times by some persistent nobles and their daughters, so he wasn't sure if he missed any spots.

_I'll just have to ask Ichigo when she wakes up._

**AN: Okay, this is going to be quick. I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. We've reached 5, 000 views everybody! (Confetti and clapping) My friend and I have a goal of reaching 10, 000, so we're half way there! Thank you all for reading and waiting for this chapter. By the way, this is 9 pages long. Yay! By the way, the reason that there are less chapters is because I combined the smaller chapters.**


	13. Chapter 13 Part 1

**AN: I'm sorry times infinity and you barely scratch the surface for the late and short chapter. I'll explain later.**

-_- =Passing of Time

Day 4 of Plan Pretend-then-Backfire:

Ichigo woke up to the sound of a large wooden door being slammed open and hitting the wall. She sat up and leaped out of bed to see eight Cyniclons in the large living room.

One of the Cyniclons was Kisshu, and said Kisshu was being tackled by six Cyniclon guards. The palace butler stood a good distance away from the mass of bodies trying to hold down a hysterical Kisshu.

"What's going on?!" Ichigo moved to try and pry off the soldiers, but the butler held out an arm to stop her.

"This man has threatened his Highness, and there for will be under arrest." With nothing more than that, Kisshu started to be taken away. When he looked back to the human, he forced a smile and gave a shot at reassuring her.

"Don't worry, Koneko-chan. It's not like they give death sentences any more." Then he was pushed out the door, and Ichigo was left alone in the large room.

The heavy doors to the throne room were opened much too slow for Ichigo's taste, and she pranced from one foot to the other as they moved a millimeter a minute. As soon as there was just enough room for Ichigo, she slid inside and stalked down the long purple carpet.

"Ichigo? What's wrong?" Caelestinus looked up from a scroll that a servant had been holding open for him to see. Ichigo stopped in front of the tyrant, shaking in anger and shock.

"You're asking me that after I woke up to my friend getting arrested for no reason, and you act as if nothing happened!" Ichigo had the desire to stamp her foot on the ground she was so frustrated.

"Ichigo, he threatened royalty. He needs to pay the price." Caelestinus sighed, as if he was explaining something that would be considered common sense to a two year old.

"When did Kisshu ever threaten you?!"

"After the party." Ichigo opened her mouth several times, trying to contradict the self imposed ruler.

"In what way did he threaten you?" Caelestinus frowned, somehow angry that Ichigo kept on asking the questions to her friend's arrest.

"He threatened me. That's all you need to know." His tone took on a dangerous hint, he was silently warning her to be docile. Unfortunately for Caelestinus, Ichigo was anything but docile.

"I DON'T CARE IF HE THREATENED YOU OR KILLED YOU ON THE SPOT! IF I HAD BEEN AWAKE, I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE JOINED HIM! AND GLADLY!" Caelestinus's eyes widened in surprise, his own anger growing. Ichigo huffed after her outburst, and made for the door.

But Ichigo didn't have a whole army backing her up. The large doors closed before she could squeeze past. The Mew's wrist was yanked back, and she was starting to be pulled towards a smaller door in the end of the hall behind the throne.

"Let me go! I said let me go! Don't touch me!" Ichigo was bordering on screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Quiet!"

"No! Don't touch me!" Ichigo kept on screaming like that and pulling desperately away. With each of the human's screams, the tyrant would keep on ordering her to be quiet in increasingly rude ways. It got to the point that when Ichigo opened her mouth to scream bloody murder again, a hand came down and slapped her. Ichigo's body froze in shock, and she slowly looked up at the person that had slapped her.

Caelestinus stood, one hand still gripping Ichigo wrist to the point of crushing, the other raised, his palm flat and stinging just as much as Ichigo's cheek. He was breathing hard, and the utter silence caused ringing in both their ears.

Ichigo couldn't remember a time where she had been slapped. In the time she spent saving the world from aliens, she had been nearly crushed, successfully pinned down to the ground by a giant chimera-if that counts as crushed, Ichigo didn't care- electrocuted a couple of times by Pai, dove into a giant bacteria, and fell from countless great heights. But some of those things had been almost voluntary. Never in her life could she remember someone slapping her. Mint might have done so once, but at the moment Ichigo couldn't seem to care if her suspicions were correct.

Caelestinus seemed to recover quickly, since he pulled Ichigo in her sate of shock closer to the door. He opened it, and started pulling Ichigo further down the hallway. Ichigo manged to recover around this time and started screaming again. How ever, Caelestinus had other ideas.

He shoved his mouth on hers, and Ichigo started wailing into the kiss. The tyrant seemed to decide that now seemed as good a time as any to shove his tongue down Ichigo's throat. The girl was so much in her own screaming mind that she didn't notice him pick her up and walk down a stair case.

Ichigo was used to Kish suddenly kissing her, and had always blown off the reason she had begun to take it in stride. When Caelestinus started kissing her, Ichigo just felt it was wrong. So wrong. Not able to handle this feeling, the Mew did the first thing she could think of, she bit down hard on the foreign muscle. Caelestinus winced and quickly withdrew. They had cleared the stair case, and were in another hallway.

"Why'd you do that? It hurt." He asked, his voice rather strange sounding seeing as how he was talking around a swollen tongue.

"**Because you tried to kiss me! Of course I'd bite you! By the way, it was FREAKING MENT TO HURT!**" Ichigo's voice raised as she started to get angry.

~How dare he try to do that.~ The voice inside her head was dangerous, and mirrored Kisshu's insane tone.

"I told you to shut up." The Emperor finished pulling Ichigo through the hall, then shoved her through an open door. "Now just stay there with him for a bit, while I take care of some business." The door was closed, and Caelestinus disappeared.

**AN: And again with the notorious criminal "Writer's Block." Charged with causing mad readers, slow chapters, frustrated to the point of tears writers, pathetic chapters and loss of good credit. Sorry again.**


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